Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 19, 4:50 PM ET

ARCC max pain

Spot (delayed)$19.82
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$20+0.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.83±9.2% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI1.4938K puts / 25K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3013.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$804Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $20

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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$18-9.2%2d
Fri, Sep 18$19-4.1%30d
Fri, Dec 18$19-4.1%121d
Fri, Jan 15$20+0.9%149d
Fri, Mar 19$19-4.1%212d
Fri, Jan 21$18-9.2%520d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot20101418222630$22M$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot2010151821243014K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ARCC open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot201015182124301K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot10141822263059%15%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 15.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 20101518212430+$909K$909K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00130.00280.00-0.00-0.05
0.99140.00660.00-0.00-0.07
0.99150.01540.00-0.00-0.10
0.97-0.00160.03550.01-0.00-0.14
0.94-0.00170.07740.01-0.00-0.21
0.85-0.00180.15360.02-0.00-0.31
0.68-0.00190.24530.04-0.00-0.46
0.44-0.00200.24410.04-0.00-0.65
0.24-0.00210.16980.04-0.00-0.81
0.13-0.00220.10760.03-0.00-0.89
0.08-0.00230.06740.020.00-0.93
0.05-0.00240.04400.01-0.95
0.04-0.00250.03000.01-0.97
0.020.00270.01580.01-0.98
0.010.00300.00750.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot101519232716K0
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

spot5131721252929K29K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 76K call contracts, 102K 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: ARCC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk