Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 29, 6:13 PM ET

SYY max pain

Spot (delayed)$82.08
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$80-2.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.15±5.1% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.181K puts / 7K calls
Call wall$85largest call OI
Put wall$75largest put OI
IV3023.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2.1Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $82.5

Event risk before this expiration: 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$80-2.5%22d
Fri, Dec 18$80-2.5%50d
Fri, Jan 15$80-2.5%78d
Fri, Feb 19$82.5+0.5%113d
Fri, Mar 19$82.5+0.5%141d
Fri, May 21$77.5-5.6%204d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8040567288104120$23M$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 — 80 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot80405067.577.587.51002K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SYY 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

spot80405067.577.587.510099
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot5568819410712094%25%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 25.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 82.5405067.577.587.5100+$683K−$683K
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
0.96-0.01650.00710.02-0.02-0.04
0.95-0.0167.50.00980.02-0.02-0.05
0.94-0.02700.01390.03-0.03-0.07
0.91-0.0272.50.02020.03-0.03-0.09
0.87-0.03750.03010.04-0.03-0.13
0.80-0.0477.50.04550.06-0.04-0.20
0.68-0.04800.06600.07-0.04-0.33
0.50-0.0482.50.07960.08-0.04-0.51
0.31-0.04850.06980.07-0.04-0.70
0.19-0.0387.50.04940.06-0.03-0.83
0.12-0.03900.03300.04-0.02-0.90
0.08-0.0292.50.02210.03-0.02-0.94
0.05-0.02950.01520.02-0.01-0.97
0.03-0.011000.00770.01-0.02-1.00
0.01-0.011050.00430.01-0.03-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 24 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot50657585951107K0
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

spot355070851001309K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 36K call contracts, 12K 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: SYY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk