Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 28, 7:43 AM ET

RXO max pain

Spot (delayed)$29.1
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$22.5-22.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.19±7.5% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.92244 puts / 265 calls
Call wall$22.5largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3031.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $20

Event risk before this expiration: 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$22.5-22.7%23d
Fri, Dec 18$20-31.3%51d
Fri, Jan 15$25-14.1%79d
Fri, Feb 19$25-14.1%114d
Fri, May 21$25-14.1%205d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot22.551219263340$1M$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 — 22.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot22.5512.517.522.53040111111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RXO 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

spot22.5512.517.522.5304011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot152025303540115%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 31.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 2012.517.522.53040+$3K−$3K
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
1.00—100.00010.000.000.00
1.00—12.50.00050.000.00-0.00
1.00—150.00080.000.00-0.00
1.00—17.50.00140.00-0.00-0.00
0.990.00200.00300.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.0022.50.00860.00-0.00-0.01
0.96-0.00250.03230.01-0.00-0.04
0.39-0.02300.15350.03-0.02-0.61
0.07-0.01350.03980.01-0.01-0.93
0.02-0.00400.01070.00-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 11 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2.57.5152025353370
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

spot2.51017.525402K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 3K 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: RXO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk