Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 10:40 AM ET

ARXS max pain

Spot (delayed)$57.69
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$55-4.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.88±17.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI2.661K puts / 524 calls
Call wall$60largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3064.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$54Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $40

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$35-39.3%5d
Fri, Sep 18$55-4.7%33d
Fri, Nov 20$40-30.7%96d
Fri, Feb 19$50-13.3%187d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot55354453627180$2M$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, Sep 18

spot5535506070714714
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ARXS 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

spot55355060702323
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot354453627180111%57%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 66.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 4035506070+$53K$53K
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
0.94-0.03350.00580.02-0.03-0.06
0.91-0.04400.00930.03-0.04-0.09
0.77-0.06500.02260.06-0.06-0.23
0.63-0.06550.03120.07-0.06-0.37
0.46-0.06600.03450.07-0.06-0.54
0.31-0.06650.03020.06-0.06-0.68
0.21-0.05700.02340.05-0.05-0.78
0.12-0.04800.01360.04-0.03-0.88

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

spot25354555654470
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

spot2030456075901K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 3K 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: ARXS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk