Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 22, 9:29 PM ET

T max pain

Spot (delayed)$25.14
Max pain · Fri, Oct 30$27+7.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.84±7.3% by Fri, Oct 30
Put/Call OI1.823K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$26.5largest call OI
Put wall$24.5largest put OI
IV3028.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$116Kper 1% move
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 21usually before the open

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$25.5+1.4%3d
Fri, Oct 2$25.5+1.4%10d
Fri, Oct 9$29+15.4%17d
Fri, Oct 16$24-4.5%24d
Fri, Oct 23$25.5+1.4%31d← 1st expiry after earnings (Wed, Oct 21)
Fri, Oct 30$27+7.4%38d
Fri, Nov 20$25-0.6%59d
Fri, Dec 18$24-4.5%87d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot27151821242731$3M$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 — 27 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot271523.525.527.529.51K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)T open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 30.

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, Oct 30

spot271523.525.527.529.5351351
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot22242527293167%24%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot1523.525.527.529.5+$109K$109K
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, Oct 30

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00150.00160.00-0.00-0.01
0.94-0.01220.06120.01-0.01-0.11
0.90-0.0122.50.08460.01-0.01-0.14
0.86-0.01230.11280.02-0.01-0.19
0.79-0.0123.50.14130.02-0.01-0.25
0.71-0.01240.16550.03-0.01-0.33
0.63-0.0124.50.18190.03-0.01-0.41
0.53-0.01250.18830.03-0.01-0.49
0.44-0.0125.50.18460.03-0.01-0.58
0.35-0.01260.17190.03-0.01-0.67
0.27-0.0126.50.15270.03-0.01-0.74
0.21-0.01270.13010.02-0.01-0.81
0.15-0.0127.50.10700.02-0.01-0.86
0.12-0.01280.08570.02-0.01-0.90
0.09-0.0128.50.06780.01-0.00-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1418.521.524.527.53115K0
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

spot121821.52528.532100K100K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 611K call contracts, 380K 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: T workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk