Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 8:30 PM ET

WING max pain

Spot (delayed)$122.88
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$130+5.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$25.9±21.1% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.962K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$150largest call OI
Put wall$145largest put OI
IV3078.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$27Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · 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$120-2.3%25d
Fri, Dec 18$130+5.8%53d
Fri, Jan 15$165+34.3%81d
Fri, Mar 19$155+26.1%144d
Thu, Jun 17$150+22.1%234d
Fri, Sep 17$105-14.6%326d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot13055126197268339410$40M$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 — 130 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot13055100145190270360298298
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)WING 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

spot130551001451902703601313
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot55126197268339410182%62%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 69.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot5595135175230310+$43K−$43K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.89-0.06900.00540.08-0.06-0.11
0.86-0.07950.00680.10-0.07-0.14
0.81-0.081000.00810.13-0.08-0.19
0.76-0.091050.00940.14-0.10-0.24
0.71-0.101100.01040.16-0.11-0.29
0.65-0.111150.01130.17-0.11-0.35
0.59-0.121200.01190.18-0.12-0.41
0.53-0.121250.01220.18-0.12-0.47
0.47-0.121300.01220.18-0.12-0.53
0.41-0.121350.01200.18-0.12-0.59
0.36-0.111400.01150.17-0.11-0.64
0.31-0.111450.01090.16-0.10-0.69
0.27-0.101500.01010.15-0.10-0.73
0.23-0.091550.00930.14-0.09-0.77
0.19-0.081600.00840.13-0.08-0.81

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 51 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot551151652303304301K0
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

spot551151752703905101K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 18K call contracts, 15K 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: WING workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk