Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 9:49 PM ET

YCS max pain

Spot (delayed)$54.75
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$55+0.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.63±10.3% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI1.30159 puts / 122 calls
Call wall$59largest call OI
Put wall$55largest put OI
IV3021.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$7Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $53

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · 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, Aug 21$54-1.4%4d
Fri, Sep 18$51-6.8%32d
Fri, Nov 20$55+0.5%95d
Fri, Feb 19$54-1.4%186d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot55304050607080$1M$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 — 55 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot55304553576175110110
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)YCS 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

spot5530455357617511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot35445362718093%11%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 53304553576175+$19K$19K
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
0.87-0.01440.02000.06-0.01-0.14
0.86-0.01450.02240.06-0.01-0.15
0.84-0.01460.02520.07-0.01-0.16
0.75-0.01500.04240.09-0.01-0.25
0.67-0.01520.05530.10-0.01-0.33
0.62-0.01530.06200.11-0.01-0.38
0.56-0.01540.06710.11-0.01-0.44
0.49-0.01550.06880.11-0.01-0.51
0.42-0.01560.06640.11-0.01-0.57
0.36-0.01570.06120.11-0.01-0.62
0.32-0.01580.05520.10-0.01-0.67
0.28-0.01590.04930.10-0.01-0.70
0.25-0.01600.04400.09-0.01-0.73
0.23-0.01610.03950.09-0.01-0.76
0.21-0.01620.03560.08-0.01-0.78

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 22 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot42475257621390
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

spot304349556175361361
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 680 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.

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: YCS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk