Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 20, 10:39 PM ET

VZ max pain

Spot (delayed)$48.13
Max pain · Fri, Oct 23$51+6.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.86±6.0% by Fri, Oct 23
Put/Call OI1.212K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$51largest put OI
IV3021.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$148Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $42
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 28usually before the open

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$50+3.9%4d
Fri, Oct 2$50+3.9%11d
Fri, Oct 9$50+3.9%18d
Fri, Oct 16$46-4.4%25d
Fri, Oct 23$51+6.0%32d
Fri, Oct 30$49+1.8%39d← 1st expiry after earnings (Wed, Oct 28)
Fri, Nov 20$49+1.8%60d
Fri, Dec 18$44-8.6%88d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot51414549525660$1M$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 — 51 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot514145495357404404
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VZ open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 23.

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, Oct 23

spot514145495357458458
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot41454952566063%16%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spotflip 424145495357+$62K$62K
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, Oct 23

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.98-0.00410.01380.01-0.01-0.06
0.97-0.01420.02090.01-0.01-0.08
0.95-0.01430.03250.01-0.01-0.11
0.91-0.01440.05100.02-0.01-0.16
0.85-0.01450.07500.03-0.02-0.23
0.76-0.02460.09980.04-0.02-0.32
0.65-0.02470.12090.05-0.02-0.43
0.53-0.02480.13000.06-0.02-0.54
0.40-0.02490.12380.06-0.02-0.65
0.28-0.02500.10710.05-0.02-0.75
0.20-0.01510.08500.04-0.01-0.83
0.13-0.01520.06290.03-0.01-0.89
0.09-0.01530.04490.02-0.01-0.93
0.06-0.01540.03200.02-0.01-0.95
0.04-0.01550.02350.01-0.00-0.96

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3041464954609K0
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

spot20324147.5536173K73K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 463K call contracts, 341K 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: VZ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk