Event risk before this expiration:FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · 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.
■ 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 — 55 — is the max pain price.
Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 19
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)QQQI open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 19.
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 19
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).
Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 19
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 16.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.
Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 19
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 19
Call Δ
Call Θ
Strike
Γ
Vega
Put Θ
Put Δ
1.00
-0.01
45
0.0204
0.21
-0.00
-0.41
0.95
-0.01
47
0.0430
0.20
-0.00
-0.47
0.89
-0.01
48
0.1062
0.06
-0.00
-0.49
0.78
-0.01
49
0.1298
0.13
-0.00
-0.51
0.66
-0.01
50
0.1152
0.17
-0.00
-0.53
0.54
-0.01
51
0.0949
0.19
0.00
-0.55
0.45
-0.01
52
0.0789
0.20
0.00
-0.56
0.38
-0.01
53
0.0652
0.20
0.00
-0.57
0.32
-0.01
54
0.0545
0.20
—
-0.58
0.28
-0.00
55
0.0457
0.20
—
-0.59
0.24
-0.00
56
0.0390
0.19
—
-0.60
0.21
-0.00
57
0.0336
0.18
—
-0.61
0.19
-0.00
58
0.0292
0.17
—
-0.61
0.17
-0.00
59
0.0256
0.16
—
-0.62
0.11
-0.00
63
0.0164
0.13
—
-0.63
Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.
Stacked — layer the expirations
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.
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.