Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 27, 11:50 PM ET

STRC max pain

Spot (delayed)$99.5
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$100+0.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.38±3.4% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.057K puts / 7K calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV307.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$5.9Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $100

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$100+0.5%23d
Fri, Dec 18$100+0.5%51d
Fri, Mar 19$100+0.5%142d
Thu, Jun 17$100+0.5%232d
Fri, Jan 21$95-4.5%450d
Fri, Jan 19$100+0.5%814d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot100406080100120140$32M$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot10040608097.51154K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)STRC open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 18.

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, Dec 18

spot10040608097.51157474
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot80889610411212033%5%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 9.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 10040608097.5115+$7.6M−$7.6M
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.03700.00370.03-0.01-0.03
1.00-0.03750.00560.03-0.01-0.04
1.00-0.03800.00910.04-0.01-0.06
1.00-0.03850.01590.06-0.01-0.09
1.00-0.03900.03150.09-0.02-0.15
1.00-0.03950.07910.13-0.01-0.32
1.00-0.0397.50.12840.14-0.01-0.56
0.23-0.011000.22430.10-0.01-0.84
0.04-0.001050.01960.03-0.00-0.94
0.02-0.001100.00740.020.00-0.96
0.01-0.001150.00380.01—-0.97
0.01-0.001200.00230.01—-0.97
0.00-0.001300.00110.01—-0.97
0.00-0.001400.00060.00—-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot6580951101256K0
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

spot406080951101306K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 15K 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: STRC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk