Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 2:02 AM ET

PSCE max pain

Spot (delayed)$58.93
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$50-15.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.2±7.1% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.013 puts / 456 calls
Call wall$68largest call OI
Put wall$58largest put OI
IV3030.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$52Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Nov 20$50-15.2%25d
Fri, Dec 18$63+6.9%53d
Fri, Feb 19$57-3.3%116d
Fri, May 21$59+0.1%207d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot50455157636975$1M$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 — 50 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot504558626675351351
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PSCE open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot50455862667511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot57616468717571%31%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 32.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot4558626675+$36K−$36K
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.02450.01140.02-0.02-0.06
0.90-0.03500.02360.03-0.03-0.10
0.66-0.04570.07070.06-0.04-0.34
0.58-0.04580.07770.06-0.04-0.42
0.50-0.04590.08070.07-0.04-0.49
0.42-0.04600.07860.06-0.04-0.57
0.30-0.03620.06470.06-0.03-0.70
0.25-0.03630.05670.05-0.03-0.74
0.21-0.03640.04940.05-0.03-0.78
0.16-0.03660.03770.04-0.03-0.83
0.13-0.03680.02930.04-0.03-0.87
0.10-0.02700.02330.03-0.02-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot45586266753510
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

spot405258647090352352
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 485 call contracts, 7 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: PSCE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk