Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 22, 12:50 PM ET

TJX max pain

Spot (delayed)$131.7
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$130-1.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.28±4.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.407K puts / 17K calls
Call wall$130largest call OI
Put wall$120largest put OI
IV3023.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2.8Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $130

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

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$129-2.1%3d
Fri, Oct 2$129-2.1%10d
Fri, Oct 9$125-5.1%17d
Fri, Oct 16$130-1.3%24d
Fri, Oct 23$125-5.1%31d
Fri, Oct 30$130-1.3%38d
Fri, Nov 20$130-1.3%59d
Fri, Dec 18$135+2.5%87d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot13095120145170195220$124M$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 — 130 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot130951201281361451803K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TJX open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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 16

spot13095120128136145180471471
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot9511513515517519564%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 13095120128136145180+$1.5M$1.5M
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 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.84-0.041240.03130.09-0.04-0.17
0.80-0.041250.03540.10-0.04-0.20
0.76-0.051260.03940.11-0.05-0.24
0.72-0.051270.04290.12-0.05-0.28
0.67-0.061280.04580.12-0.06-0.33
0.63-0.061290.04800.13-0.06-0.38
0.58-0.061300.04950.13-0.06-0.43
0.53-0.061310.05030.14-0.06-0.48
0.43-0.061330.04950.14-0.06-0.58
0.38-0.061340.04800.13-0.06-0.63
0.33-0.061350.04590.13-0.06-0.68
0.29-0.051360.04320.12-0.06-0.72
0.25-0.051370.04020.11-0.05-0.76
0.21-0.051380.03680.10-0.05-0.80
0.18-0.041390.03320.09-0.04-0.83

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 42 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot801201271331391653K0
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

spot5097.511913014119012K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 87K call contracts, 60K 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: TJX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk