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

ADTN max pain

Spot (delayed)$8.14
Max pain · Fri, Feb 19$10+22.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.57±43.9% by Fri, Feb 19
Put/Call OI1.02122 puts / 120 calls
Call wall$15largest call OI
Put wall$7largest put OI
IV3071.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$30per 1% move

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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — 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

spot103712162125$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot1036912153030
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ADTN open contracts per strike for Fri, Feb 19.

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, Feb 19

spot1036912152020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot3712162125119%78%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 78.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot47101325+$122$122
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, Feb 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.94-0.0030.01570.01-0.00-0.06
0.91-0.0040.02600.01-0.00-0.10
0.87-0.0050.04020.01-0.00-0.14
0.81-0.0060.05770.02-0.00-0.20
0.73-0.0070.07500.02-0.00-0.28
0.64-0.0080.08640.02-0.00-0.37
0.56-0.0090.08990.02-0.01-0.46
0.49-0.01100.08810.02-0.01-0.53
0.43-0.01110.08400.02-0.01-0.59
0.39-0.01120.07900.02-0.01-0.64
0.35-0.01130.07400.02-0.01-0.69
0.32-0.01140.06920.02-0.00-0.72
0.29-0.01150.06480.02-0.00-0.75

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 14 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