Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 28, 3:44 AM ET

AAL max pain

Spot (delayed)$13.78
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$14+1.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.88±13.6% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.6813K puts / 8K calls
Call wall$16largest call OI
Put wall$12largest put OI
IV3044.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$132Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $10
Earnings · expectedThu, Oct 22usually before the open

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 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 28$14+1.6%today
Fri, Sep 4$14+1.6%7d
Fri, Sep 11$14.5+5.2%14d
Fri, Sep 18$14+1.6%21d
Fri, Sep 25$14.5+5.2%28d
Fri, Oct 2$14+1.6%35d
Fri, Oct 16$14+1.6%49d
Fri, Nov 20$15+8.9%84d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Oct 22)

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot143610131720$13M$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 — 14 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot143691215186K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AAL 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

spot14369121518396396
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot81013151820152%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 45.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 10369121518+$121K$121K
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
0.9870.00830.00-0.00-0.02
0.9880.01270.00-0.00-0.02
0.9790.02000.00-0.00-0.03
0.96-0.00100.03410.01-0.00-0.04
0.91-0.00110.06500.01-0.00-0.09
0.81-0.01120.11210.01-0.01-0.19
0.67-0.01130.15420.02-0.01-0.33
0.50-0.01140.17120.02-0.01-0.50
0.35-0.01150.15710.02-0.01-0.66
0.22-0.01160.12580.01-0.01-0.79
0.14-0.01170.09110.01-0.00-0.88
0.09-0.00180.06420.01-0.00-0.93
0.07-0.00190.04660.01-0.00-0.96
0.05-0.00200.03520.010.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot510.513.516.519.52414K0
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

spot1913172127272K272K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 725K call contracts, 1.2M 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: AAL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk