Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 10:03 AM ET

VVX max pain

Spot (delayed)$74.09
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$55-25.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.95±12.1% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.0780 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$125largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3049.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$68Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Nov 20$55-25.8%25d
Fri, Dec 18$70-5.5%53d
Fri, Feb 19$65-12.3%116d
Fri, May 21$50-32.5%207d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot5535537189107125$2M$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 — 55 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot5535557595115550550
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VVX open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot553555759511522
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot35537189107125164%45%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 54.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot35557595115+$18K−$18K
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.04400.00280.01-0.03-0.03
0.96-0.04450.00420.01-0.04-0.04
0.95-0.05500.00640.02-0.04-0.06
0.92-0.05550.00970.03-0.05-0.09
0.87-0.06600.01490.04-0.06-0.13
0.80-0.07650.02310.06-0.06-0.21
0.67-0.07700.03380.07-0.07-0.33
0.48-0.07750.03920.08-0.07-0.52
0.31-0.07800.03310.07-0.07-0.68
0.21-0.06850.02430.06-0.06-0.79
0.14-0.05900.01760.05-0.05-0.85
0.11-0.04950.01310.04-0.04-0.89
0.08-0.041000.01000.03-0.04-0.91
0.07-0.041050.00780.03-0.04-0.93
0.05-0.031100.00630.02-0.03-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot355575951155540
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

spot35557595115135554554
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 184 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: VVX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk