Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 25, 11:35 PM ET

SPSC max pain

Spot (delayed)$91.56
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$65-29.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.4±14.6% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.11266 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$95largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3045.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$396Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $50

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
Fri, Nov 20$80-12.6%25d
Fri, Dec 18$70-23.5%53d
Fri, Jan 15$65-29.0%81d
Fri, Apr 16$90-1.7%172d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot6530496887106125$10M$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 — 65 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot6530456075901051K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPSC open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot6530456075901052020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot30496887106125141%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 38.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 503045607590105+$221K−$221K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.02550.00330.05-0.02-0.05
0.93-0.02600.00440.06-0.02-0.07
0.91-0.03650.00600.07-0.03-0.09
0.88-0.03700.00810.09-0.03-0.12
0.84-0.03750.01090.11-0.03-0.15
0.79-0.03800.01470.13-0.03-0.21
0.71-0.04850.01940.15-0.04-0.29
0.60-0.04900.02400.17-0.04-0.39
0.47-0.04950.02640.18-0.04-0.52
0.35-0.031000.02480.16-0.03-0.65
0.25-0.031050.02080.14-0.03-0.75
0.14-0.021150.01300.10-0.02-0.87
0.08-0.021250.00810.07-0.02-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot30456580951151K0
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

spot305070901101K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 448 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: SPSC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk