Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 7:58 PM ET

STX max pain

Spot (delayed)$652.93
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$770+17.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$99.8±15.3% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI1.0422K puts / 21K calls
Call wall$800largest call OI
Put wall$570largest put OI
IV3069.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$9.6Mper 1% move

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, Oct 30$700+7.2%4d
Fri, Nov 6$725+11.0%11d
Fri, Nov 13$745+14.1%18d
Fri, Nov 20$770+17.9%25d
Fri, Nov 27$750+14.9%32d
Fri, Dec 4$685+4.9%39d
Fri, Dec 18$720+10.3%53d
Fri, Jan 15$550-15.8%81d
Fri, Mar 19$820+25.6%144d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot770390654918118214461710$1.5B$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 — 770 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot77039059068078088010003K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)STX 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

spot77039059068078088010002K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot390654918118214461710164%62%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 72.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot390580670750840930+$2.6M−$2.6M
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.77-0.775800.00240.53-0.79-0.23
0.74-0.815900.00250.56-0.83-0.26
0.72-0.856000.00270.58-0.87-0.29
0.69-0.896100.00280.61-0.91-0.32
0.66-0.926200.00290.63-0.94-0.35
0.63-0.956300.00300.65-0.96-0.38
0.59-0.976400.00310.67-0.98-0.41
0.56-0.986500.00320.68-0.99-0.44
0.53-0.996600.00320.68-1.00-0.48
0.50-0.996700.00320.69-1.00-0.51
0.48-0.996750.00320.68-1.00-0.52
0.47-0.986800.00320.68-0.99-0.54
0.44-0.976900.00320.68-0.98-0.57
0.41-0.967000.00310.67-0.96-0.60
0.38-0.947100.00310.65-0.94-0.63

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot4606306757458159405K0
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

spot801853305707109007K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 126K call contracts, 176K 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: STX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk