Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 17, 12:02 AM ET

SE max pain

Spot (delayed)$93.51
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$120+28.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$17.25±18.4% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.4331K puts / 22K calls
Call wall$140largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3062.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$3.1Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 23$97+3.7%7d
Fri, Oct 30$100+6.9%14d
Fri, Nov 6$97+3.7%21d
Fri, Nov 13$95+1.6%28d
Fri, Nov 20$105+12.3%35d
Fri, Nov 27$94+0.5%42d
Fri, Dec 18$120+28.3%63d
Fri, Jan 15$100+6.9%91d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1204080120160200240$228M$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 — 120 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot12040709012016020010K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SE open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 18.

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, Dec 18

spot1204070901201602005555
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot4080120160200240120%43%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 55.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot407090120160200+$1.7M−$1.7M
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.86-0.04750.00980.09-0.04-0.14
0.83-0.0477.50.01130.10-0.04-0.17
0.80-0.05800.01280.11-0.05-0.21
0.76-0.0682.50.01420.12-0.06-0.24
0.72-0.06850.01550.13-0.06-0.29
0.67-0.0687.50.01660.14-0.06-0.33
0.63-0.07900.01750.15-0.07-0.37
0.58-0.0792.50.01810.15-0.07-0.42
0.54-0.07950.01850.15-0.07-0.47
0.49-0.0797.50.01860.16-0.07-0.51
0.45-0.071000.01850.15-0.07-0.56
0.36-0.061050.01760.15-0.07-0.64
0.29-0.061100.01610.13-0.06-0.72
0.23-0.051150.01420.12-0.05-0.79
0.18-0.041200.01210.10-0.05-0.84

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 45 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot75951031111191304600
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

spot407087.511014518017K17K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 120K call contracts, 83K 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: SE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk