Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 10, 10:59 PM ET

VNM max pain

Spot (delayed)$17.12
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 10:59 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Mar 19Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.15
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 10:59 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2027-03-19 expiration = 2.15 USD, 12.6% of 17.12 spot.
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±12.6% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.27
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 10:59 PM ET
How17 put contracts / 64 call contracts = 0.27 for the 2027-03-19 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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17 puts / 64 calls
IV3028.0%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 10:59 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 81 open contracts across 9 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Event risk before this expiration: 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 20one strike decides10d
Fri, Dec 18$17-0.7%38d
Fri, Mar 19too thin129d
Thu, Jun 17too thin219d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 81 open contracts across 9 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot13151719254141
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VNM open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot13151820232555%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 26.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.89-0.00130.04180.02-0.00-0.10
0.85-0.00140.06010.02-0.00-0.14
0.80-0.00150.08730.03-0.00-0.20
0.70-0.00160.12420.04-0.00-0.29
0.57-0.00170.15720.04-0.00-0.43
0.41-0.00180.15550.04-0.00-0.60
0.30-0.00190.12740.04-0.00-0.72
0.22-0.00200.09960.03-0.00-0.80
0.09-0.00250.03770.02-0.00-0.94

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

spot914161820223630
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

spot71115192327363363
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 789 call contracts, 438 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: VNM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk