Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 20, 12:45 AM ET

AMC max pain

Spot (delayed)$2.7
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$2.5-7.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.44±16.1% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.115K puts / 48K calls
Call wall$4largest call OI
Put wall$2.5largest put OI
IV3074.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$105Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $1

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Sep 25$2.5-7.4%5d
Fri, Oct 2$2.5-7.4%12d
Fri, Oct 9$2.5-7.4%19d
Fri, Oct 16$2.5-7.4%26d
Fri, Oct 23$2.5-7.4%33d
Fri, Oct 30$2-25.9%40d
Fri, Nov 20$2.5-7.4%61d
Fri, Dec 18$2.5-7.4%89d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot2.5112345$4M$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 — 2.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot2.50.51.52.53.54.517K17K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AMC 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

spot2.50.51.52.53.54.54K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot122345188%73%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 74.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 11234+$41K$41K
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
1.000.000.50.00630.000.00-0.00
0.99-0.0010.02220.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.001.50.07140.00-0.00-0.03
0.91-0.0020.24510.00-0.00-0.09
0.68-0.002.50.65810.00-0.00-0.32
0.36-0.0030.61120.00-0.00-0.64
0.20-0.003.50.39090.00-0.00-0.81
0.12-0.0040.25140.00-0.00-0.89
0.08-0.004.50.16910.00-0.00-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot0.51.52.53.54.55.529K0
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

spot0.523.557108K108K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 608K call contracts, 166K 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: AMC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk