Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 1:47 AM ET

RILY max pain

Spot (delayed)$4.19
Max pain · Fri, Oct 30$4.5+7.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.34±8.1% by Fri, Oct 30
Put/Call OI0.402K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$5largest call OI
Put wall$4largest put OI
IV3078.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $3.5

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 30$4.5+7.5%5d
Fri, Nov 6$1-76.1%12d
Fri, Nov 13$4.5+7.5%19d
Fri, Nov 20$5+19.4%26d
Fri, Nov 27$1-76.1%33d
Fri, Dec 4$5+19.4%40d
Fri, Dec 18$5+19.4%54d
Fri, Jan 15$7.5+79.1%82d
Fri, Apr 16$5+19.4%173d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot4.513681013$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 — 4.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot4.513.556.58122K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RILY open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 30.

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, Oct 30

spot4.513.556.58124K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot456789290%75%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 76.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spotflip 3.513.556.58+$18K−$18K
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, Oct 30

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.000.0010.0021—0.00-0.00
1.00-0.001.50.0058—-0.00-0.00
0.98-0.002.50.04390.00-0.00-0.02
0.86-0.013.50.39390.00-0.01-0.14
0.55-0.0140.83680.00-0.01-0.45
0.21-0.014.50.57290.00-0.01-0.80
0.08-0.0150.25310.00-0.01-0.93
0.04-0.005.50.11760.00-0.00-0.97
0.02-0.0060.06030.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.006.50.03370.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.0070.02020.000.00-1.00
0.000.007.50.01270.000.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 17 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot12.556.583K0
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

spot0.535.5810.51326K26K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 31K call contracts, 46K 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: RILY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk