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

XOM max pain

Spot (delayed)$163.28
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$155-5.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$16.1±9.9% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.8732K puts / 37K calls
Call wall$180largest call OI
Put wall$130largest put OI
IV3028.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$6.3Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $170

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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, 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

spot15575112149186223260$332M$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, Nov 20

spot155751051351651952506K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)XOM 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

spot155751051351651952502K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot7511214918622326085%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 29.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 17090115140165190230+$2.5M$2.5M
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.021300.00380.06-0.02-0.05
0.94-0.021350.00570.08-0.03-0.07
0.90-0.031400.00820.12-0.03-0.11
0.85-0.041450.01120.16-0.04-0.17
0.79-0.051500.01440.19-0.05-0.23
0.70-0.061550.01730.23-0.06-0.32
0.61-0.061600.01950.26-0.06-0.41
0.51-0.061650.02040.27-0.06-0.51
0.41-0.061700.02000.26-0.06-0.61
0.32-0.061750.01830.24-0.05-0.69
0.24-0.051800.01590.21-0.05-0.77
0.18-0.041850.01320.18-0.04-0.83
0.13-0.031900.01060.14-0.03-0.87
0.10-0.031950.00830.12-0.03-0.91
0.07-0.022000.00640.09-0.02-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 32 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