Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 28, 2:25 AM ET

POET max pain

Spot (delayed)$5.68
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$5-12.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.67±29.5% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.1143K puts / 410K calls
Call wall$12largest call OI
Put wall$7largest put OI
IV3084.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$761Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $2

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 30$5.5-3.2%2d
Fri, Nov 6$6+5.6%9d
Fri, Nov 13$5.5-3.2%16d
Fri, Nov 20$7+23.2%23d
Fri, Nov 27$6.5+14.4%30d
Fri, Dec 4$6+5.6%37d
Fri, Dec 18$6+5.6%51d
Fri, Jan 15$5-12.0%79d
Fri, Apr 16$7+23.2%170d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot51917243240$1.0B$0
■ put-side pain■ call-side painTotal payout option writers would owe at each settle price (both sides, all open interest, ×100 shares) — low settles hurt put writers, high settles hurt call writers. The minimum — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot5181522293669K69K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)POET open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

Open-interest change: building vs unwinding

Needs two observed snapshot days for this expiration; the comparison appears automatically once the next weekday snapshot lands. We diff real observations only; nothing is estimated.

Volume by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot51815222936793793
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot1917243240198%68%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 76.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 21815222936+$221K−$221K
Net dealer gamma per strike, in dollars per 1% move, assuming the standard convention (dealers long calls, short puts) — an assumption, not an observation. Above the amber flip level hedging tends to dampen moves; below it, to amplify them.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00—10.00270.000.00-0.00
0.980.0020.01220.00-0.00-0.01
0.95-0.0030.04000.00-0.00-0.05
0.86-0.0040.09460.01-0.00-0.14
0.71-0.0050.15930.01-0.00-0.29
0.52-0.0160.19000.01-0.01-0.47
0.36-0.0170.17610.01-0.01-0.64
0.25-0.0080.14440.01-0.00-0.75
0.18-0.0090.11390.01-0.00-0.83
0.14-0.00100.08970.01-0.00-0.88
0.10-0.00110.07150.01-0.00-0.91
0.08-0.00120.05790.00-0.00-0.93
0.07-0.00130.04770.00-0.00-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 40 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot24.579.512155K0
Call open interest per strike, stacked across the checked expirations — each color is one expiry. Strikes are pruned to the liquid center of each chain.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot15.510152433137K137K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 932K call contracts, 105K put contracts open.

Reading this honestly

Max pain is arithmetic, not prophecy: the settle price that would minimize what option writers pay out at expiration, computed from open interest alone. Prices sometimes gravitate toward heavy strikes into expiry — dealer hedging is a real flow — but the evidence that max pain predicts settlement better than chance is mixed, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Use it as a map of where positioning is stacked, next to the fundamentals and the earnings calendar, not as a target.

Data: Cboe delayed public feed (~15 minutes), refreshed here about every 15 minutes. Open interest itself updates once daily, before the open. Educational information, not investment advice.

Keep going: POET workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk