Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 10:08 AM ET

RIOT max pain

Spot (delayed)$12.34
Max pain · Fri, Oct 30$16+29.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.29±10.5% by Fri, Oct 30
Put/Call OI0.7546K puts / 62K calls
Call wall$22largest call OI
Put wall$12largest put OI
IV3097.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$315Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $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$16+29.7%4d
Fri, Nov 6$16+29.7%11d
Fri, Nov 13$17+37.8%18d
Fri, Nov 20$15+21.6%25d
Fri, Nov 27$16+29.7%32d
Fri, Dec 4$15+21.6%39d
Fri, Dec 18$17+37.8%53d
Fri, Jan 15$16+29.7%81d
Fri, Mar 19$22+78.3%144d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot161815212835$101M$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 — 16 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot16111.515.519.5243219K19K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RIOT 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

spot16111.515.519.5243210K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot91317222630357%81%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 93.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spotflip 5512.51619.52330+$413K−$413K
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
1.00-0.0050.00140.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.0090.01740.00-0.00-0.01
0.96-0.01100.05220.00-0.01-0.04
0.92-0.0210.50.08980.00-0.02-0.08
0.86-0.03110.13800.00-0.03-0.14
0.77-0.0411.50.18750.01-0.04-0.23
0.66-0.04120.22760.01-0.04-0.34
0.54-0.0512.50.24840.01-0.05-0.47
0.41-0.04130.24500.01-0.05-0.59
0.30-0.0413.50.22060.01-0.04-0.70
0.21-0.03140.18240.01-0.03-0.80
0.14-0.0214.50.14010.00-0.03-0.86
0.10-0.02150.10420.00-0.02-0.91
0.07-0.0115.50.07790.00-0.01-0.93
0.05-0.01160.05950.00-0.01-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 44 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1111519233121K0
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

spot11015202636124K124K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 605K call contracts, 366K 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: RIOT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk