Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 24, 3:14 AM ET

TLT max pain

Spot (delayed)$81.3
Max pain · Wed, Oct 28$80.5-1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.88±1.1% by Wed, Oct 28
Put/Call OI0.5020K puts / 40K calls
Call wall$84largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3013.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$9.3Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $73

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Mon, Oct 26$80-1.6%1d
Wed, Oct 28$80.5-1.0%3d
Fri, Oct 30$79-2.8%5d
Mon, Nov 2$81-0.4%8d
Wed, Nov 4$81.5+0.2%10d
Fri, Nov 6$78.5-3.4%12d
Fri, Nov 20$81-0.4%26d
Fri, Dec 18$81-0.4%54d
Thu, Dec 31$81-0.4%67d
Fri, Jan 15$85+4.6%82d
Fri, Feb 19$81-0.4%117d
Fri, Mar 19$80-1.6%145d
Wed, Mar 31$81-0.4%157d
Fri, Apr 16$82+0.9%173d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot80.5717579848892$31M$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 — 80.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Wed, Oct 28

spot80.57175788184897K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TLT open contracts per strike for Wed, Oct 28.

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 · Wed, Oct 28

spot80.57175788184894K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Oct 28

spot72768084889240%11%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 11.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Oct 28

spotflip 73717578818489+$2.8M−$2.8M
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 · Wed, Oct 28

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.00780.02320.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0178.50.03710.01-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.01790.06080.01-0.01-0.04
0.94-0.0179.50.10240.01-0.01-0.07
0.88-0.02800.17220.02-0.02-0.12
0.78-0.0380.50.26980.03-0.03-0.22
0.63-0.04810.35330.04-0.04-0.38
0.45-0.0481.50.36170.04-0.05-0.56
0.28-0.04820.29870.03-0.04-0.72
0.17-0.0382.50.21220.03-0.03-0.84
0.10-0.02830.13680.02-0.02-0.91
0.06-0.0183.50.08460.01-0.01-0.95
0.03-0.01840.05200.01-0.01-0.97
0.02-0.0184.50.03330.01-0.01-0.98
0.01-0.00850.02180.00-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 34 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot6472.577.582889752K0
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

spot457381.58897120988K988K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 8.9M call contracts, 4.6M 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: TLT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk