Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 23, 3:38 AM ET

WCN max pain

Spot (delayed)$184.88
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$165-10.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.9±5.4% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.372K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$180largest call OI
Put wall$165largest put OI
IV3022.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3.8Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $170

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$165-10.8%28d
Fri, Dec 18$170-8.0%56d
Fri, Mar 19$115-37.8%147d
Thu, Jun 17$150-18.9%237d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot165130143156169182195$12M$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 — 165 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot1651301451601751952K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)WCN 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

spot1651301451601751952K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot13014315616918219584%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 170130145160175195+$2.4M−$2.4M
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
0.99—1500.00120.01-0.01-0.01
0.99—1550.00240.02-0.01-0.01
0.97-0.011600.00440.04-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.021650.00800.06-0.03-0.05
0.90-0.031700.01380.10-0.04-0.10
0.81-0.051750.02180.14-0.06-0.19
0.69-0.071800.02990.18-0.07-0.32
0.52-0.081850.03410.21-0.08-0.48
0.23-0.061950.02510.16-0.06-0.79

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 9 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1101351551751952K0
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

spot1001251501752002502K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7K call contracts, 3K 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: WCN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk