Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 9, 9:41 PM ET

VXF max pain

Spot (delayed)$232.93
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 9, 9:41 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Nov 20Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.45
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 9, 9:41 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2026-11-20 expiration = 6.45 USD, 2.8% of 232.93 spot.
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±2.8% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.35
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 9, 9:41 PM ET
How8 put contracts / 23 call contracts = 0.35 for the 2026-11-20 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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8 puts / 23 calls
IV3018.7%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 9, 9:41 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 31 open contracts across 9 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Nov 20too thin10d
Fri, Dec 18too thin38d
Fri, Mar 19too thin129d
Thu, Jun 17too thin219d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 31 open contracts across 9 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot2052152252402501010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VXF 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

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot20521422323224125053%18%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 19.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.012050.00200.01-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.022100.00380.02-0.02-0.02
0.96-0.032150.00750.03-0.04-0.04
0.93-0.062200.01470.06-0.06-0.08
0.84-0.092250.02810.10-0.10-0.16
0.67-0.132300.04660.15-0.13-0.33
0.19-0.092400.03700.11-0.09-0.83
0.07-0.052450.01790.06-0.05-0.96
0.03-0.022500.00780.03-0.03-1.00

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

spot185220235250265440
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

spot1451801992302653004444
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 142 call contracts, 84 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.

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