Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 8, 6:33 PM ET

USPH max pain

Spot (delayed)$99.49
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 6:33 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Dec 18Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.05
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 6:33 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2026-12-18 expiration = 9.05 USD, 9.1% of 99.49 spot.
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±9.1% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI7.29
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 6:33 PM ET
How51 put contracts / 7 call contracts = 7.29 for the 2026-12-18 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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51 puts / 7 calls
IV3034.7%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 6:33 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 58 open contracts across 8 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Event risk before this expiration: CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Nov 20$85-14.6%12d
Fri, Dec 18too thin40d
Fri, Mar 19too thin131d
Thu, Jun 17too thin221d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 58 open contracts across 8 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot356075904242
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)USPH open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 18.

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, Dec 18

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot606774818895107%38%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 33.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.01350.00040.00-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.01400.00060.00-0.02-0.01
0.98-0.03600.00260.01-0.03-0.04
0.95-0.04700.00540.03-0.03-0.06
0.93-0.04750.00770.04-0.04-0.08
0.90-0.05800.01110.06-0.04-0.11
0.78-0.05900.02250.10-0.05-0.23
0.66-0.06950.03020.12-0.05-0.34

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot354580901001K0
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

spot355575951151351K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 221 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.

Max pain, walls and gamma print only when an expiration holds at least 100 open contracts across 5 strikes, and max pain also needs to stay within 5% of spot when its single heaviest strike is removed. Below that the expiration reads as thin rather than printing a level one trade could move.

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: USPH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk