Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 10:36 PM ET

ARRY max pain

Spot (delayed)$4.8
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$6+25.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.9±18.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.433K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$10largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV3073.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$6Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $4

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$6+25.0%3d
Fri, Sep 18$6+25.0%31d
Fri, Oct 16$5+4.2%59d
Fri, Nov 20$9+87.6%94d
Fri, Jan 15$7+45.9%150d
Fri, Jan 21$5+4.2%521d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot614791215$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 — 6 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot614710132K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ARRY open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

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 18

spot614710135656
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot14791215267%76%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 77.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 41581114+$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 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.98-0.0010.01010.00-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.0020.02890.00-0.00-0.04
0.93-0.0030.07620.00-0.00-0.07
0.82-0.0140.22470.00-0.01-0.18
0.49-0.0150.38560.01-0.01-0.52
0.24-0.0160.25690.00-0.01-0.78
0.13-0.0070.15220.00-0.00-0.89
0.07-0.0080.09240.00-0.00-0.95
0.04-0.0090.05780.00-0.00-0.98
0.03-0.00100.03710.00-0.00-1.00
0.02-0.00110.02440.00-0.00-1.00
0.01-0.00120.01630.00-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot159131722K0
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

spot159131728K28K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 86K call contracts, 46K 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: ARRY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk