Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 10:20 AM ET

ACM max pain

Spot (delayed)$63.59
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$62.5-1.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.53±8.7% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.48555 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$92.5largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3033.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$6Kper 1% move

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$67.5+6.1%6d
Fri, Sep 18$62.5-1.7%34d
Fri, Oct 16$72.5+14.0%62d
Fri, Dec 18$70+10.1%125d
Fri, Mar 19$67.5+6.1%216d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot62.5507090110130150$8M$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 — 62.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot62.55067.58092.5120349349
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ACM 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

spot62.55067.58092.51205252
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot50658095110125132%28%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 34.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot5065758595125+$44K$44K
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
0.95-0.01500.00970.02-0.01-0.04
0.89-0.02550.02330.04-0.02-0.11
0.72-0.03600.04640.07-0.03-0.28
0.59-0.0462.50.05630.08-0.04-0.41
0.45-0.04650.05900.08-0.04-0.55
0.31-0.0367.50.05300.07-0.03-0.69
0.20-0.03700.04190.06-0.03-0.80
0.13-0.0272.50.03050.04-0.02-0.88
0.08-0.01750.02130.03-0.01-0.93
0.05-0.0177.50.01470.02-0.01-0.96
0.04-0.01800.01000.02-0.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 25 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot37.56580951201909630
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

spot37.562.582.51051451851K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 8K call contracts, 5K 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: ACM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk