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

ADTN max pain

Spot (delayed)$8.14
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$6-26.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.43±17.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.1894 puts / 527 calls
Call wall$8largest call OI
Put wall$7largest put OI
IV3071.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$5Kper 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$11+35.1%7d
Fri, Sep 18$6-26.3%35d
Fri, Nov 20$9+10.6%98d
Fri, Jan 15$14+72.0%154d
Fri, Feb 19$10+22.9%189d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot6148111518$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 — 6 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot618111418280280
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ADTN 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

spot61811141811
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot6811131618162%67%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 70.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot18111418+$4K$4K
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
0.99-0.0010.00280.00-0.00-0.01
0.87-0.0160.08470.01-0.01-0.13
0.76-0.0170.15390.01-0.01-0.24
0.57-0.0180.21480.01-0.01-0.43
0.39-0.0190.18760.01-0.01-0.62
0.28-0.01100.14430.01-0.01-0.72
0.22-0.01110.11260.01-0.01-0.79
0.18-0.01120.09070.01-0.01-0.83
0.15-0.01130.07500.01-0.01-0.86
0.13-0.01140.06350.01-0.01-0.88
0.11-0.01150.05460.01-0.01-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot16111621355K0
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

spot171319253511K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 24K call contracts, 25K 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: ADTN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk