Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 10, 12:34 AM ET

VIK max pain

Spot (delayed)$81.62
Max pain · Fri, May 21$80-2.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$20.55±25.2% by Fri, May 21
Put/Call OI4.163K puts / 634 calls
Call wall$110largest call OI
Put wall$70largest put OI
IV3039.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$157Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $50

Event risk before this expiration: CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · 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, Oct 16$80-2.0%4d
Fri, Nov 20$85+4.1%39d
Fri, Dec 18$85+4.1%67d
Fri, Jan 15$80-2.0%95d
Fri, Feb 19$80-2.0%130d
Fri, May 21$80-2.0%221d
Fri, Jan 21$80-2.0%466d
Fri, Jan 19$70-14.2%830d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8045638199117135$7M$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 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21

spot80456075901051202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VIK open contracts per strike for Fri, May 21.

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, May 21

spot80456075901051201010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21

spot50678410111813546%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 40.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, May 21

spotflip 5045607590105120+$182K−$182K
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, May 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.00450.00230.05-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.01500.00360.07-0.01-0.05
0.92-0.01550.00530.10-0.01-0.08
0.88-0.01600.00730.13-0.01-0.13
0.83-0.01650.00950.17-0.02-0.18
0.77-0.02700.01160.20-0.02-0.24
0.70-0.02750.01340.22-0.02-0.31
0.62-0.02800.01480.24-0.02-0.39
0.55-0.02850.01560.25-0.02-0.47
0.47-0.02900.01580.26-0.02-0.55
0.40-0.02950.01550.25-0.02-0.63
0.34-0.021000.01470.23-0.02-0.70
0.28-0.021050.01360.22-0.02-0.77
0.23-0.021100.01230.20-0.02-0.83
0.19-0.011150.01090.17-0.02-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot5075951151354K0
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

spot17.540701001301607K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 28K call contracts, 17K 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: VIK workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk