Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 7:39 PM ET

SMH max pain

Spot (delayed)$544.74
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$600+10.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$101.3±18.6% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI1.3751K puts / 37K calls
Call wall$875largest call OI
Put wall$600largest put OI
IV3038.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$18.8Mper 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
Mon, Oct 26$540-0.9%today
Wed, Oct 28$530-2.7%2d
Fri, Oct 30$555+1.9%4d
Mon, Nov 2$530-2.7%7d
Wed, Nov 4$552.5+1.4%9d
Fri, Nov 6$555+1.9%11d
Fri, Nov 20$590+8.3%25d
Fri, Dec 18$550+1.0%53d
Fri, Jan 15$535-1.8%81d
Fri, Feb 19$570+4.6%116d
Fri, Mar 19$600+10.1%144d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot600195352509666823980$1.6B$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 — 600 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot6001954505205706307155K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SMH 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

spot600195450520570630715202202
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot19535250966682398078%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 37.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot195450520570630715+$4.6M−$4.6M
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
0.69-0.155050.00271.21-0.16-0.32
0.68-0.165100.00271.23-0.17-0.33
0.65-0.165200.00281.27-0.17-0.36
0.63-0.165250.00291.28-0.17-0.38
0.62-0.165300.00301.30-0.17-0.39
0.60-0.175350.00301.32-0.17-0.41
0.59-0.175400.00311.33-0.17-0.42
0.57-0.175450.00311.34-0.17-0.44
0.56-0.175500.00311.35-0.17-0.46
0.54-0.175550.00321.35-0.17-0.47
0.53-0.175600.00321.36-0.17-0.49
0.51-0.175650.00321.36-0.17-0.50
0.49-0.175700.00321.36-0.17-0.52
0.48-0.175750.00321.36-0.17-0.54
0.46-0.175800.00321.35-0.17-0.55

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot350507.5535562.5595627.511K0
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

spot160370470540610725119K119K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 774K call contracts, 1.1M 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: SMH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk