Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 4, 12:24 AM ET

SPDW max pain

Spot (delayed)$49.26
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 4, 12:24 AM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, May 21Not showntoo thin to read
Put/Call OI2.50
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 4, 12:24 AM ET
How5 put contracts / 2 call contracts = 2.50 for the 2027-05-21 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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5 puts / 2 calls
IV3018.2%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 4, 12:24 AM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 7 open contracts across 5 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

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$44-10.7%16d
Fri, Dec 18too thin44d
Fri, Feb 19$48-2.6%107d
Fri, May 21too thin198d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 7 open contracts across 5 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21

spot444546476022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPDW open contracts per strike for Fri, May 21.

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, May 21

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21

spot44475054576035%18%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 20.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, May 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.76-0.01440.03280.11-0.01-0.24
0.74-0.01450.03740.12-0.01-0.26
0.70-0.01460.04280.12-0.01-0.30
0.67-0.01470.04900.13-0.01-0.34
0.14-0.00600.02780.08-0.00-0.91

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

spot4145515459770
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

spot37424752577777
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 217 call contracts, 136 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: SPDW workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk