Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 11, 1:45 AM ET

UNH max pain

Spot (delayed)$379.98
Max pain · Fri, Oct 30$375-1.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$32.2±8.5% by Fri, Oct 30
Put/Call OI0.924K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$410largest call OI
Put wall$340largest put OI
IV3040.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $410
Earnings · expectedTue, Oct 27usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Oct 16$387.5+2.0%5d
Fri, Oct 23$380+0.0%12d
Fri, Oct 30$375-1.3%19d← 1st expiry after earnings (Tue, Oct 27)
Fri, Nov 6$370-2.6%26d
Fri, Nov 13$380+0.0%33d
Fri, Nov 20$390+2.6%40d
Fri, Nov 27$355-6.6%47d
Fri, Dec 18$350-7.9%68d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot375215276337398459520$56M$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 — 375 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot3752152953403854304801K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UNH 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

spot375215295340385430480167167
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot215276337398459520150%41%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 44.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spotflip 410250300340380420460+$812K−$812K
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
0.83-0.243450.00620.23-0.24-0.17
0.80-0.273500.00700.26-0.27-0.20
0.76-0.303550.00780.28-0.30-0.24
0.71-0.333600.00840.31-0.33-0.29
0.67-0.353650.00900.33-0.35-0.33
0.62-0.373700.00940.35-0.37-0.38
0.57-0.383750.00980.36-0.38-0.43
0.52-0.383800.01000.36-0.38-0.48
0.47-0.383850.01000.36-0.38-0.53
0.42-0.373900.00990.36-0.38-0.58
0.38-0.363950.00960.35-0.36-0.63
0.33-0.344000.00920.33-0.34-0.67
0.29-0.324050.00870.31-0.32-0.72
0.25-0.294100.00810.29-0.30-0.76
0.21-0.264150.00740.26-0.27-0.80

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 49 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot250325362.5387.54204707K0
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

spot12520030037547058041K41K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 465K call contracts, 376K 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: UNH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk