Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 29, 1:33 AM ET

SGHC max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.51
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$14.75+40.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.85±17.6% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.368K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$13largest call OI
Put wall$14.75largest put OI
IV3059.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$32Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $7.75

Event risk before this expiration: 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$9-14.4%22d
Fri, Dec 18$14.75+40.3%50d
Fri, Jan 15$9-14.4%78d
Fri, Apr 16$12+14.2%169d
Thu, Jun 17$12+14.2%231d
Fri, Jan 21$5-52.4%449d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot14.753712162025$9M$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 — 14.75 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot14.752.757.7511.7514.7518216K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SGHC 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

spot14.752.757.7511.7514.75182122
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot3712162025209%51%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 57.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 7.752.757.7511.7514.751821+$46K−$46K
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
0.99-0.002.750.00500.00-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.004.750.01410.00-0.00-0.04
0.89-0.017.750.06250.01-0.01-0.12
0.69-0.019.750.16590.01-0.01-0.32
0.34-0.0111.750.17490.01-0.01-0.67
0.21-0.01130.12290.01-0.01-0.80
0.12-0.0114.750.07520.01-0.01-0.89
0.07-0.0016.750.04650.01-0.00-0.94
0.06-0.00180.03580.01-0.00-0.96
0.04-0.0019.750.02580.00-0.00-0.98
0.03-0.00210.02080.00-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 12 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2.757.751114.751824.7553K0
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

spot2.7571014172153K53K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 110K call contracts, 23K 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: SGHC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk