Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 12:37 AM ET

AAON max pain

Spot (delayed)$86.2
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$90+4.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.5±14.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.37791 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$115largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3059.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$134Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $100

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$85-1.4%5d
Fri, Sep 18$90+4.4%33d
Fri, Oct 16$65-24.6%61d
Fri, Dec 18$90+4.4%124d
Fri, Jan 15$110+27.6%152d
Fri, Mar 19$100+16.0%215d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot90607896114132150$9M$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 — 90 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot906075901051251K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AAON open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

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, Sep 18

spot9060759010512599
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot60789611413215099%54%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 57.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 100607590105125+$128K$128K
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, Sep 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.03600.00420.02-0.03-0.04
0.93-0.04650.00690.04-0.04-0.07
0.89-0.05700.01070.05-0.05-0.11
0.82-0.06750.01540.07-0.06-0.18
0.72-0.08800.02020.09-0.08-0.28
0.61-0.09850.02360.10-0.09-0.39
0.49-0.09900.02450.11-0.09-0.51
0.37-0.09950.02310.10-0.09-0.63
0.28-0.081000.02020.09-0.08-0.72
0.21-0.071050.01680.08-0.07-0.79
0.15-0.061100.01350.06-0.06-0.85
0.11-0.051150.01070.05-0.05-0.89
0.06-0.031250.00660.03-0.04-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot55801051301551852K0
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

spot40701001301601902K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 9K call contracts, 3K 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: AAON workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk