Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 30, 2:08 AM ET

SOXL max pain

Spot (delayed)$102.39
Max pain · Fri, Feb 19$115+12.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$48.75±47.6% by Fri, Feb 19
Put/Call OI1.0133K puts / 32K calls
Call wall$115largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV30118.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$242Kper 1% move

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, Oct 30$100-2.3%today
Fri, Nov 6$105+2.5%7d
Fri, Nov 13$115+12.3%14d
Fri, Nov 20$115+12.3%21d
Fri, Nov 27$105+2.5%28d
Fri, Dec 4$105+2.5%35d
Fri, Dec 18$120+17.2%49d
Fri, Jan 15$55-46.3%77d
Fri, Feb 19$115+12.3%112d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot11545117189261333405$700M$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 — 115 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot11545951451962352854K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SOXL open contracts per strike for Fri, Feb 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, Feb 19

spot1154595145196235285297297
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot45117189261333405152%111%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 116.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot4595145196235285+$172K−$172K
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, Feb 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.80-0.07650.00450.14-0.07-0.20
0.77-0.07700.00490.15-0.08-0.23
0.73-0.08750.00530.16-0.08-0.26
0.70-0.08800.00570.17-0.09-0.29
0.67-0.09850.00600.18-0.09-0.33
0.64-0.09900.00620.19-0.09-0.36
0.61-0.10950.00640.19-0.10-0.39
0.57-0.101000.00650.20-0.10-0.42
0.55-0.101050.00660.20-0.10-0.45
0.52-0.101100.00670.20-0.10-0.48
0.49-0.101150.00670.20-0.10-0.51
0.46-0.101200.00670.20-0.09-0.53
0.44-0.101250.00660.20-0.09-0.56
0.42-0.101300.00650.20-0.09-0.58
0.39-0.101350.00640.19-0.09-0.60

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

spot459711012213716517K0
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

spot124447011519050K50K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 711K 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: SOXL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk