Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 25, 11:31 PM ET

SOUN max pain

Spot (delayed)$4.4
Max pain · Fri, Nov 6$5+13.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.62±14.1% by Fri, Nov 6
Put/Call OI0.253K puts / 13K calls
Call wall$6.5largest call OI
Put wall$5.5largest put OI
IV3077.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$33Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $1

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

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 30$5+13.6%5d
Fri, Nov 6$5+13.6%12d
Fri, Nov 13$5+13.6%19d
Fri, Nov 20$8+81.8%26d
Fri, Nov 27$1.5-65.9%33d
Fri, Dec 4$6.5+47.7%40d
Fri, Dec 18$5+13.6%54d
Fri, Jan 15$7+59.1%82d
Fri, Apr 16$6+36.4%173d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot513571012$8M$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 — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 6

spot50.53579115K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SOUN open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 6.

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, Nov 6

spot50.53579111K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 6

spot24681012332%76%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 88.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 6

spotflip 113.55.57.59.5+$13K−$13K
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, Nov 6

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.000.50.00220.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.0010.00570.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0020.02370.00-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.002.50.04700.00-0.00-0.03
0.95-0.0130.09580.00-0.01-0.06
0.89-0.013.50.20280.00-0.01-0.12
0.75-0.0140.40770.00-0.01-0.25
0.50-0.014.50.54440.00-0.01-0.51
0.29-0.0150.42560.00-0.01-0.72
0.17-0.015.50.28330.00-0.01-0.84
0.11-0.0160.18920.00-0.01-0.90
0.07-0.016.50.13060.00-0.01-0.94
0.05-0.0070.09320.00-0.00-0.96
0.04-0.007.50.06860.00-0.00-0.97
0.03-0.0080.05170.00-0.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot0.53579119K0
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

spot0.547.511173079K79K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 420K call contracts, 128K 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: SOUN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk