Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 20, 6:58 PM ET

SBLK max pain

Spot (delayed)$28.04
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$30+7.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.48±8.8% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.9015K puts / 17K calls
Call wall$34largest call OI
Put wall$30largest put OI
IV3037.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$308Kper 1% move

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, Nov 20$30+7.0%31d
Fri, Dec 18$27-3.7%59d
Fri, Jan 15$31+10.6%87d
Fri, Feb 19$35+24.8%122d
Fri, May 21$40+42.7%213d
Thu, Jun 17$22-21.5%240d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot30182227313640$15M$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 — 30 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot301823273135406K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SBLK 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

spot301823273135409696
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot182227313640103%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 37.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot182327313540+$344K−$344K
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
0.95-0.01210.01970.01-0.01-0.05
0.93-0.01220.02660.01-0.01-0.07
0.91-0.01230.03620.01-0.01-0.09
0.88-0.01240.04970.02-0.01-0.12
0.83-0.01250.06780.02-0.01-0.17
0.76-0.02260.09040.03-0.02-0.24
0.66-0.02270.11390.03-0.02-0.34
0.54-0.02280.12950.03-0.02-0.46
0.41-0.02290.12870.03-0.02-0.59
0.30-0.02300.11310.03-0.02-0.71
0.21-0.01310.09140.02-0.01-0.80
0.15-0.01320.07070.02-0.01-0.86
0.11-0.01330.05370.01-0.01-0.91
0.08-0.01340.04060.01-0.01-0.94
0.06-0.01350.03080.01-0.01-0.96

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 21 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot10202630343817K0
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

spot3152127333918K18K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 38K call contracts, 28K 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: SBLK workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk