Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 5:33 AM ET

ALGT max pain

Spot (delayed)$86.45
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$55-36.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$18±20.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.27326 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$150largest call OI
Put wall$55largest put OI
IV3062.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$59Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $50

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 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$100+15.7%7d
Fri, Sep 18$90+4.1%35d
Fri, Oct 16$55-36.4%63d
Fri, Jan 15$50-42.2%154d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot55406692118144170$7M$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 — 55 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot55406080100120140247247
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ALGT open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot5540608010012014055
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot406692118144170110%59%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 62.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 50406080100120140+$23K$23K
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.01500.00270.03-0.02-0.04
0.95-0.01550.00410.04-0.03-0.06
0.92-0.02600.00590.06-0.03-0.09
0.88-0.03650.00810.08-0.04-0.13
0.82-0.04700.01060.10-0.05-0.18
0.76-0.05750.01320.11-0.06-0.25
0.68-0.06800.01550.13-0.06-0.33
0.60-0.07850.01710.14-0.07-0.41
0.51-0.07900.01780.14-0.07-0.50
0.43-0.07950.01760.14-0.07-0.59
0.35-0.061000.01660.13-0.06-0.66
0.28-0.061050.01510.12-0.06-0.73
0.23-0.051100.01340.11-0.05-0.79
0.19-0.051150.01160.10-0.04-0.83
0.15-0.041200.01000.09-0.03-0.87

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 24 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot4065901151401754380
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

spot406590115140165438438
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 2K 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: ALGT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk