Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 3:44 AM ET

AAPL max pain

Spot (delayed)$332.58
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$300-9.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.85±2.7% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.78355K puts / 453K calls
Call wall$350largest call OI
Put wall$300largest put OI
IV3023.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$504.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $315
Earnings · expectedThu, Oct 29usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Mon, Sep 14$315-5.3%2d
Wed, Sep 16$320-3.8%4d
Fri, Sep 18$300-9.8%6d
Mon, Sep 21$315-5.3%9d
Wed, Sep 23$315-5.3%11d
Fri, Sep 25$320-3.8%13d
Fri, Oct 2$310-6.8%20d
Fri, Oct 9$315-5.3%27d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot300140232324416508600$12.1B$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 — 300 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot30014020525530032536546K46K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AAPL open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-102026-09-11

spot180240280307.5327.5360+6K6K
Net contracts opened (up, green) or closed (down, red) per strike since the previous snapshot — where the walls are building and where they’re unwinding. Biggest moves: 330 +6K · 320 4K · 310 +3K · 322.5 +2K

Volume by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot30014020525530032536550K50K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot22026030034038042095%19%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 315225265300320345385+$111.9M$111.9M
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
0.92-0.133150.01150.07-0.13-0.08
0.89-0.16317.50.01470.09-0.16-0.11
0.86-0.193200.01860.10-0.19-0.14
0.81-0.23322.50.02300.13-0.23-0.19
0.75-0.263250.02760.15-0.27-0.25
0.68-0.29327.50.03180.17-0.30-0.32
0.60-0.323300.03480.18-0.32-0.41
0.42-0.323350.03560.18-0.32-0.59
0.33-0.29337.50.03310.17-0.29-0.68
0.26-0.263400.02930.15-0.26-0.75
0.14-0.183450.02000.10-0.18-0.87
0.07-0.113500.01210.07-0.11-0.94
0.04-0.073550.00700.04-0.06-0.97
0.02-0.043600.00420.03-0.04-0.98
0.01-0.033650.00260.02-0.02-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot140210265307.533537049K0
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.

Max pain history — nearest expiry vs price

07-2808-0508-1308-2108-3109-08339.64301.96
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot15175235295350440224K224K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2.9M call contracts, 2.1M 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: AAPL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk