Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 5, 10:27 PM ET

SKHN max pain

Spot (delayed)$11.56
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 5, 10:27 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Dec 18Not showntoo thin to read
Put/Call OI0.02
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 5, 10:27 PM ET
How2 put contracts / 92 call contracts = 0.02 for the 2026-12-18 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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2 puts / 92 calls
IV3069.7%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 5, 10:27 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 94 open contracts across 8 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Event risk before this expiration: 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 20too thin9d
Fri, Dec 18too thin37d
Fri, Mar 19one strike decides128d
Thu, Jun 17$12+3.8%218d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 94 open contracts across 8 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot81321233232
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SKHN 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

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot81420273339469%148%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 326.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.92-0.0080.04390.01-0.01-0.09
0.86-0.0190.07040.01-0.01-0.14
0.38-0.01130.12980.01-0.01-0.63
0.17-0.01160.07610.01-0.01-0.84
0.06-0.01210.02960.010.00-0.96
0.05-0.00220.02500.00not quoted-0.97
0.04-0.00230.02130.00not quoted-0.98
0.01-0.00390.00310.00-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot812182328320
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

spot1815222936185185
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 233 call contracts, 286 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.

Max pain, walls and gamma print only when an expiration holds at least 100 open contracts across 5 strikes, and max pain also needs to stay within 5% of spot when its single heaviest strike is removed. Below that the expiration reads as thin rather than printing a level one trade could move.

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: SKHN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk