Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 1:05 PM ET

ALGN max pain

Spot (delayed)$173.1
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$175+1.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$20±11.6% by Fri, Sep 25
Put wall$115largest put OI
IV3036.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$20Kper 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$177.5+2.5%6d
Fri, Aug 28$160-7.6%13d
Fri, Sep 4$160-7.6%20d
Fri, Sep 11$170-1.8%27d
Fri, Sep 18$170-1.8%34d
Fri, Sep 25$175+1.1%41d
Fri, Oct 16$180+4.0%62d
Fri, Dec 18$155-10.5%125d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot17595111127143159175$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 — 175 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot17595105115140160264264
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ALGN open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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 25

spot1759510511514016011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot95111127143159175137%42%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 41.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot95105115140160+$10K$10K
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 25

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.981050.00090.03-0.02-0.02
0.981100.00110.03-0.02-0.02
0.981150.00130.03-0.02-0.02
0.95-0.011350.00320.06-0.03-0.05
0.94-0.021400.00410.07-0.04-0.06
0.89-0.041500.00730.11-0.05-0.11
0.79-0.071600.01180.17-0.08-0.21
0.56-0.101750.01670.24-0.10-0.44

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 8 strikes around the money — all 10 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot140170182.51952152404840
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

spot65120162.51902303203K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 16K call contracts, 13K 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: ALGN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk