Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 27, 3:45 PM ET

SFM max pain

Spot (delayed)$63.45
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$70+10.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$15.6±24.6% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.702K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$90largest call OI
Put wall$55largest put OI
IV3058.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$16Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $90

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, Nov 20$70+10.3%24d
Fri, Dec 18$75+18.2%52d
Fri, Jan 15$80+26.1%80d
Fri, Mar 19$70+10.3%143d
Thu, Jun 17$70+10.3%233d
Fri, Jan 21$60-5.4%451d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot7035547392111130$10M$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 — 70 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot70355575951151K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SFM open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot70355575951151010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot3554739211113071%42%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 48.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spotflip 9035557595115+$69K−$69K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.98-0.00350.00300.03-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.01400.00530.05-0.01-0.06
0.91-0.01450.00850.07-0.01-0.10
0.84-0.02500.01220.10-0.02-0.17
0.76-0.02550.01590.13-0.02-0.25
0.67-0.02600.01890.15-0.03-0.35
0.57-0.03650.02070.16-0.03-0.45
0.47-0.03700.02100.16-0.03-0.56
0.38-0.03750.02010.15-0.03-0.66
0.30-0.02800.01830.14-0.02-0.74
0.23-0.02850.01610.12-0.02-0.82
0.18-0.02900.01380.11-0.02-0.88
0.14-0.01950.01160.09-0.02-0.94
0.11-0.011000.00960.07-0.02-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot35701051401752205K0
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

spot357010514017522010K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 40K call contracts, 25K 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: SFM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk