Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 23, 12:15 AM ET

ST max pain

Spot (delayed)$40.7
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$45+10.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.3±10.6% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.40618 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$60largest call OI
Put wall$22.5largest put OI
IV3044.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $22.5

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Nov 20$45+10.6%28d
Fri, Dec 18$50+22.9%56d
Fri, Jan 15$27.5-32.4%84d
Fri, Mar 19$42.5+4.4%147d
Thu, Jun 17$47.5+16.7%237d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot45152637485970$2M$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 — 45 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot4515304050601K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ST open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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 20

spot45153040506022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot253443526170163%36%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 47.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 22.522.53037.54552.560+$7K−$7K
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 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00—22.50.00130.00-0.00-0.01
0.99—250.00260.00-0.00-0.01
0.99—27.50.00500.00-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.00300.01010.01-0.01-0.03
0.94-0.0132.50.01990.01-0.01-0.07
0.87-0.02350.03690.02-0.02-0.13
0.75-0.0337.50.05970.04-0.03-0.25
0.58-0.03400.07640.04-0.04-0.43
0.39-0.0342.50.07480.04-0.03-0.62
0.24-0.03450.05890.04-0.03-0.77
0.14-0.0247.50.04060.03-0.02-0.87
0.08-0.01500.02630.02-0.01-0.93
0.05-0.0152.50.01650.01-0.01-0.96
0.03-0.01550.01030.01-0.01-0.99
0.02-0.0057.50.00650.01-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1022.53547.5602K0
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

spot517.53042.555702K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 8K call contracts, 3K 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: ST workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk