Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 1:39 AM ET

AER max pain

Spot (delayed)$150.45
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$135-10.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.65±5.7% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.201K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$140largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3022.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$263Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $145

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$150-0.3%3d
Fri, Sep 18$135-10.3%31d
Fri, Oct 16$145-3.6%59d
Fri, Jan 15$80-46.8%150d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot13580103126149172195$6M$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 — 135 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot13580110130150170190325325
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AER 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

spot13580110130150170190100100
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot10011913815717619595%19%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 14580110130150170190+$173K$173K
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
0.97-0.011150.00270.03-0.02-0.03
0.97-0.021200.00380.03-0.02-0.03
0.95-0.021250.00560.04-0.03-0.05
0.93-0.031300.00840.06-0.03-0.07
0.90-0.041350.01290.08-0.04-0.10
0.83-0.051400.02020.11-0.05-0.17
0.73-0.061450.03040.15-0.06-0.28
0.56-0.061500.03860.18-0.06-0.45
0.37-0.061550.03650.17-0.06-0.65
0.23-0.051600.02740.14-0.05-0.79
0.15-0.041650.01900.10-0.04-0.88
0.10-0.031700.01300.08-0.04-0.93
0.07-0.031750.00900.06-0.03-0.96
0.05-0.021800.00640.04-0.02-0.98
0.03-0.021850.00460.03-0.02-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 22 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1001201401601802008970
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

spot4575951251601951K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 12K call contracts, 6K 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: AER workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk