Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 20, 6:53 PM ET

SU max pain

Spot (delayed)$78.11
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$65-16.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.85±16.5% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.9810K puts / 11K calls
Call wall$65largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3034.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$273Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $40

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · 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, Oct 23$75-4.0%3d
Fri, Oct 30$73-6.5%10d
Fri, Nov 6$67-14.2%17d
Fri, Nov 13$68-12.9%24d
Fri, Nov 20$70-10.4%31d
Fri, Nov 27$68-12.9%38d
Fri, Dec 18$60-23.2%59d
Fri, Jan 15$60-23.2%87d
Fri, Mar 19$65-16.8%150d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot653044587286100$35M$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 — 65 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot6530506580955K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SU open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 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, Mar 19

spot6530506580951313
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot405264768810078%27%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 31.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spotflip 403050658095+$224K−$224K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.98—450.00200.02-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.00500.00340.04-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.00550.00580.05-0.01-0.06
0.91-0.01600.00950.09-0.01-0.10
0.84-0.01650.01430.12-0.01-0.17
0.75-0.02700.01950.16-0.02-0.26
0.64-0.02750.02340.18-0.02-0.37
0.52-0.02800.02500.20-0.02-0.50
0.40-0.02850.02420.19-0.02-0.61
0.30-0.02900.02160.17-0.02-0.72
0.22-0.02950.01810.15-0.01-0.81
0.15-0.011000.01450.12-0.01-0.87

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 14 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot4062687378831K0
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

spot20425969798916K16K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 81K call contracts, 46K 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: SU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk