Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 10, 9:14 PM ET

VXZ max pain

Spot (delayed)$46.58
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 9:14 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Feb 19Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.95
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 9:14 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2027-02-19 expiration = 7.95 USD, 17.1% of 46.58 spot.
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±17.1% by Fri, Feb 19
Put/Call OI0.06
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 9:14 PM ET
How2 put contracts / 32 call contracts = 0.06 for the 2027-02-19 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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2 puts / 32 calls

Too thin to read: 34 open contracts across 8 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 20$39-16.3%10d
Fri, Dec 18$50+7.4%38d
Fri, Jan 15too thin66d
Fri, Feb 19too thin101d
Fri, Mar 19too thin129d
Thu, Jun 17too thin219d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 34 open contracts across 8 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot414448571414
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VXZ open contracts per strike for Fri, Feb 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, Feb 19

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot434854596570130%90%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 100.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Feb 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.43-0.03410.02660.07-0.02-0.73
0.35-0.02430.02870.07-0.02-0.77
0.31-0.02440.02910.06-0.01-0.79
0.20-0.01470.02680.05-0.01-0.84
0.18-0.01480.02520.05-0.01-0.86
0.13-0.01520.01960.04-0.01-0.92
0.08-0.01570.01360.03-0.01-0.99
0.02-0.00700.00440.01-0.01-1.00

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

spot3345525868802910
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

spot253647586980291291
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 956 call contracts, 220 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: VXZ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk