Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 10:04 AM ET

XP max pain

Spot (delayed)$16.4
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$22+34.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$14.55±88.7% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.24152K puts / 639K calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$22largest put OI
IV30101.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4.1Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $13

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$30+82.9%4d
Fri, Nov 6$30+82.9%11d
Fri, Nov 13$30+82.9%18d
Fri, Nov 20$22+34.1%25d
Fri, Nov 27$30+82.9%32d
Fri, Dec 4$29+76.8%39d
Fri, Dec 18$29+76.8%53d
Fri, Jan 15$17+3.7%81d
Fri, Feb 19$21+28.0%116d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot22101724313845$1.2B$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 — 22 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot22101825293338216K216K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)XP 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

spot2210182529333812K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot101724313845297%80%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 158.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 13101825293338+$1.6M−$1.6M
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
0.98-0.01100.00230.00-0.01-0.02
0.98-0.02110.00290.00-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.02120.00360.01-0.02-0.03
0.97-0.02130.00450.01-0.02-0.03
0.96-0.02140.00550.01-0.02-0.04
0.95-0.03150.00660.01-0.03-0.05
0.94-0.03160.00790.01-0.03-0.06
0.93-0.03170.00940.01-0.03-0.07
0.92-0.04180.01110.01-0.04-0.08
0.90-0.04190.01300.01-0.04-0.09
0.89-0.04200.01510.02-0.04-0.11
0.87-0.04210.01750.02-0.04-0.13
0.85-0.05220.02000.02-0.05-0.15
0.82-0.05230.02280.02-0.05-0.17

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 47 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot520.524.529.533.53813K0
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

spot315.521.527.533.539.5258K258K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 942K call contracts, 492K 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: XP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk