Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 1:55 PM ET

WDC max pain

Spot (delayed)$347.35
Max pain · Fri, Nov 13$400+15.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$43.72±12.6% by Fri, Nov 13
Put/Call OI1.564K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$415largest call OI
Put wall$370largest put OI
IV3067.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.6Mper 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, Oct 30$370+6.5%4d
Fri, Nov 6$370+6.5%11d
Fri, Nov 13$400+15.2%18d
Fri, Nov 20$390+12.3%25d
Fri, Nov 27$380+9.4%32d
Fri, Dec 4$395+13.7%39d
Fri, Dec 18$360+3.6%53d
Fri, Jan 15$380+9.4%81d
Fri, Mar 19$450+29.6%144d
Fri, Apr 16$340-2.1%172d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot400240317394471548625$53M$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 — 400 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 13

spot400240315365415465585488488
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)WDC open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 13.

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 13

spot4002403153654154655851010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 13

spot240317394471548625146%60%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 70.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 13

spot240315365415465585+$230K−$230K
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 13

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.79-0.453100.00510.23-0.46-0.22
0.76-0.483150.00550.24-0.49-0.24
0.73-0.513200.00590.26-0.52-0.28
0.69-0.543250.00620.27-0.54-0.31
0.66-0.563300.00650.28-0.57-0.34
0.63-0.583350.00680.29-0.58-0.38
0.59-0.593400.00700.30-0.60-0.41
0.56-0.603450.00710.31-0.61-0.45
0.52-0.613500.00720.31-0.61-0.48
0.48-0.603550.00720.31-0.61-0.52
0.45-0.603600.00720.31-0.60-0.55
0.42-0.593650.00710.30-0.59-0.59
0.38-0.583700.00690.30-0.58-0.62
0.35-0.563750.00670.29-0.56-0.65
0.32-0.543800.00650.28-0.54-0.68

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 55 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot250327.53704104705402K0
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

spot1512026039053068020K20K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 236K call contracts, 293K 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: WDC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk