Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 21, 12:20 AM ET

PSN max pain

Spot (delayed)$44.82
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$60+33.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.95±20.0% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI3.933K puts / 671 calls
Call wall$70largest call OI
Put wall$45largest put OI
IV3040.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$141Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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, Oct 16$45+0.4%25d
Fri, Nov 20$60+33.9%60d
Fri, Dec 18$40-10.8%88d
Fri, Mar 19$45+0.4%179d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot6025466788109130$6M$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 — 60 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot60254565851051K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PSN 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

spot602545658510511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot25466788109130149%41%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 60.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot25456585105+$88K$88K
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
0.98-0.01250.00400.01-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.01300.00900.02-0.01-0.06
0.88-0.02350.01820.04-0.02-0.13
0.75-0.03400.03130.06-0.03-0.26
0.56-0.03450.04140.07-0.03-0.45
0.36-0.03500.03980.07-0.03-0.66
0.22-0.02550.03050.06-0.02-0.81
0.14-0.02600.02120.04-0.02-0.90
0.09-0.01650.01450.03-0.02-0.95
0.06-0.01700.01020.02-0.01-0.98
0.04-0.01750.00730.02-0.00-0.99
0.03-0.01800.00540.01-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot254565851052650
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

spot20355575951152K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 5K 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: PSN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk