Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 19, 5:51 PM ET

ALOY max pain

Spot (delayed)$12.61
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$11-12.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.63±36.7% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.542K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$17.5largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV30115.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$15Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $9

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$11-12.7%2d
Fri, Sep 18$11-12.7%30d
Fri, Oct 16$11-12.7%58d
Fri, Jan 15$12-4.8%149d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot112814192531$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 — 11 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot1127.512.517.52226853853
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ALOY 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

spot1127.512.517.522265656
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot2814192531359%94%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 115.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 927.512.517.52226+$7K$7K
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
1.00-0.0040.00580.00-0.00-0.02
0.98-0.0050.00960.00-0.01-0.03
0.96-0.0160.01500.01-0.01-0.05
0.92-0.017.50.02650.01-0.01-0.10
0.85-0.0190.04120.01-0.01-0.16
0.80-0.01100.05120.01-0.01-0.22
0.73-0.02110.05960.02-0.02-0.29
0.63-0.0212.50.06720.02-0.02-0.39
0.53-0.02140.06900.02-0.02-0.49
0.48-0.02150.06780.02-0.02-0.55
0.43-0.02160.06540.02-0.02-0.60
0.36-0.0217.50.06080.02-0.02-0.66
0.31-0.02190.05570.02-0.02-0.72
0.28-0.02200.05240.02-0.02-0.75
0.26-0.02210.04910.02-0.02-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot191317.522302K0
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

spot171217222810K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 18K call contracts, 19K 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: ALOY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk