Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 20, 12:13 AM ET

XOM max pain

Spot (delayed)$163.28
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$155-5.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$10.35±6.3% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.6553K puts / 81K calls
Call wall$170largest call OI
Put wall$150largest put OI
IV3028.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$30.8Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $165

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$160-2.0%5d
Fri, Oct 2$160-2.0%12d
Fri, Oct 9$162.5-0.5%19d
Fri, Oct 16$155-5.1%26d
Fri, Oct 23$160-2.0%33d
Fri, Oct 30$165+1.1%40d
Fri, Nov 20$155-5.1%61d
Fri, Dec 18$145-11.2%89d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot15585120155190225260$722M$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 — 155 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot1558511013516018522022K22K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)XOM open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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 16

spot155851101351601852202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot8512015519022526091%24%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 165105130155180210260+$15.5M$15.5M
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 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.011300.00200.02-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.021350.00350.03-0.02-0.02
0.96-0.021400.00590.04-0.02-0.04
0.92-0.041450.01000.07-0.04-0.08
0.86-0.051500.01610.10-0.05-0.14
0.77-0.071550.02330.14-0.07-0.24
0.63-0.091600.02930.17-0.09-0.37
0.48-0.091650.03130.18-0.09-0.53
0.33-0.081700.02860.17-0.08-0.68
0.21-0.071750.02260.13-0.07-0.80
0.13-0.051800.01600.10-0.05-0.89
0.07-0.031850.01050.07-0.04-0.95
0.04-0.021900.00660.04-0.02-0.98
0.03-0.011950.00410.03-0.01-0.99
0.02-0.012000.00270.02-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 30 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot125145152.5167.5182.5197.54K0
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

spot50100141152.5177.520569K69K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 561K call contracts, 374K 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: XOM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk