Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 10, 4:16 PM ET

WH max pain

Spot (delayed)$81.12
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 4:16 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Dec 18Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.1
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 4:16 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2026-12-18 expiration = 7.10 USD, 8.8% of 81.12 spot.
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±8.8% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.32
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 4:16 PM ET
How22 put contracts / 69 call contracts = 0.32 for the 2026-12-18 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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22 puts / 69 calls
IV3032.2%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 4:16 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 91 open contracts across 7 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$75-7.5%10d
Fri, Dec 18too thin38d
Fri, Feb 19$70-13.7%101d
Fri, May 21too thin192d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 91 open contracts across 7 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot556575854747
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)WH open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 18.

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, Dec 18

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot55616773798597%32%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 33.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.02550.00430.02-0.02-0.04
0.94-0.02600.00680.03-0.03-0.06
0.92-0.03650.01110.04-0.03-0.09
0.86-0.03700.01870.06-0.04-0.15
0.76-0.04750.03200.08-0.04-0.25
0.57-0.04800.04680.10-0.04-0.44
0.35-0.04850.04270.10-0.04-0.66

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

spot457080901001203110
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

spot35557595115810810
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 966 call contracts, 1K 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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