Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 28, 2:46 AM ET

RCAT max pain

Spot (delayed)$4.98
Max pain · Fri, Nov 13$4.5-9.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.77±15.5% by Fri, Nov 13
Put/Call OI0.622K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$4.5largest call OI
Put wall$3.5largest put OI
IV3094.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$10Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $1.5

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, Oct 30$5+0.4%3d
Fri, Nov 6$5+0.4%10d
Fri, Nov 13$4.5-9.6%17d
Fri, Nov 20$7+40.6%24d
Fri, Nov 27$5+0.4%31d
Fri, Dec 4$8+60.6%38d
Fri, Dec 18$5+0.4%52d
Fri, Jan 15$7+40.6%80d
Fri, Apr 16$6+20.5%171d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot4.513681113$2M$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 — 4.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 13

spot4.5146810742742
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RCAT open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 13.

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 13

spot4.5146810580580
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 13

spot13681113322%70%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 89.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 13

spotflip 1.51.545.578.510+$5K−$5K
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 13

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.0010.00450.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.001.50.00950.00-0.00-0.01
0.95-0.0030.06540.00-0.00-0.05
0.91-0.013.50.12370.00-0.01-0.09
0.83-0.0140.22530.00-0.01-0.17
0.68-0.014.50.35430.00-0.01-0.32
0.48-0.0150.41260.00-0.01-0.52
0.31-0.015.50.35390.00-0.01-0.69
0.19-0.0160.26020.00-0.01-0.81
0.12-0.016.50.18320.00-0.01-0.87
0.08-0.0170.12920.00-0.01-0.91
0.06-0.007.50.09270.00-0.00-0.94
0.04-0.0080.06790.00-0.00-0.96
0.03-0.008.50.05070.00-0.00-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 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

spot146.5911.5142K0
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

spot0.54.58.512.5193022K22K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 163K call contracts, 77K 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: RCAT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk