Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 25, 11:53 PM ET

QMCO max pain

Spot (delayed)$17.51
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$25+42.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.3±30.3% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI1.142K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$40largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV30126.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$23Kper 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$25+42.8%25d
Fri, Dec 18$20+14.2%53d
Fri, Mar 19$10-42.9%144d
Fri, May 21$30+71.3%207d
Thu, Jun 17$22+25.6%234d
Fri, Jan 21$17.5-0.1%452d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot25101826344250$3M$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 — 25 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot25101520253545855855
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)QMCO 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

spot251015202535453232
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot101826344250276%104%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 136.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot101520253545+$10K−$10K
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
0.95-0.01100.01500.01-0.01-0.05
0.88-0.0212.50.03220.01-0.02-0.13
0.75-0.04150.05220.02-0.04-0.26
0.59-0.0417.50.06250.02-0.04-0.41
0.45-0.05200.06150.02-0.05-0.56
0.34-0.0422.50.05460.02-0.04-0.67
0.25-0.04250.04620.02-0.04-0.76
0.15-0.03300.03140.01-0.03-0.87
0.09-0.02350.02100.01-0.02-0.93
0.06-0.01400.01420.01-0.02-0.96
0.04-0.01450.00980.00-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 12 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2.51017.525405K0
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

spot2.512.5202429345K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 16K call contracts, 4K 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: QMCO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk