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

STX max pain

Spot (delayed)$652.93
Max pain · Fri, Nov 27$750+14.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$106.6±16.3% by Fri, Nov 27
Put/Call OI2.422K puts / 625 calls
Call wall$880largest call OI
Put wall$630largest put OI
IV3069.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.1Mper 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

spot7504705987268549821110$27M$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 — 750 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 27

spot750470590660710760830194194
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)STX open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 27.

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 27

spot7504705906607107608309696
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 27

spot470598726854982111092%60%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 68.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 27

spot470590660710760830+$227K−$227K
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 27

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.68-0.766100.00260.69-0.77-0.32
0.66-0.786200.00270.72-0.79-0.35
0.63-0.806300.00280.74-0.81-0.38
0.61-0.816350.00290.74-0.82-0.40
0.60-0.816400.00290.75-0.83-0.41
0.58-0.826450.00290.76-0.83-0.43
0.57-0.836500.00290.76-0.84-0.44
0.55-0.836550.00300.77-0.84-0.46
0.54-0.836600.00300.77-0.84-0.47
0.52-0.836650.00300.77-0.84-0.49
0.51-0.836700.00300.77-0.84-0.50
0.49-0.836750.00300.77-0.84-0.52
0.48-0.836800.00300.77-0.84-0.53
0.47-0.836850.00300.77-0.84-0.55
0.45-0.826900.00300.77-0.83-0.56

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