Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 30, 2:33 AM ET

SPYI max pain

Spot (delayed)$53.28
Max pain · Fri, Jan 19$54+1.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.3±17.5% by Fri, Jan 19
Put/Call OI6.90290 puts / 42 calls
Call wall$54largest call OI
Put wall$49largest put OI
IV3011.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$29Kper 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, Nov 20$53-0.5%21d
Fri, Dec 18$53-0.5%49d
Fri, Mar 19$54+1.4%140d
Thu, Jun 17$58+8.9%230d
Fri, Jan 21$54+1.4%448d
Fri, Jan 19$54+1.4%812d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot54303744515865$1M$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 — 54 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 19

spot543045505461656565
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPYI open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 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, Jan 19

spot5430455054616511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 19

spot30374451586532%9%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 12.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 19

spot304550546165+$10K−$10K
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 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00—450.05080.24-0.00-0.46
1.00—460.05430.24-0.00-0.50
1.00—480.05760.23-0.00-0.61
1.00—490.00790.23-0.00-0.66
0.960.00500.04830.01-0.00-0.71
0.86-0.00510.13030.070.00-0.75
0.68-0.01520.18250.130.00-0.78
0.49-0.01530.15810.170.00-0.81
0.36-0.00540.10740.18—-0.83
0.28-0.00550.07460.18—-0.85
0.23-0.00560.05760.17—-0.87
0.20-0.00570.04680.16—-0.88
0.12-0.00610.02660.12—-0.91
0.11-0.00620.02390.12—-0.92
0.10-0.00630.02170.11—-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 21 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot4350535659643K0
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

spot3043485358633K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7K call contracts, 12K 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: SPYI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk