Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 28, 11:45 PM ET

ASH max pain

Spot (delayed)$74.37
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$70-5.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.33±7.2% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI5.301K puts / 247 calls
Call wall$75largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3033.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$94Kper 1% move

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, Sep 18$70-5.9%20d
Fri, Oct 16$60-19.3%48d
Fri, Jan 15$60-19.3%139d
Fri, Apr 16$70-5.9%230d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot704052647688100$3M$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 — 70 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot70405570851001K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ASH 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

spot70405570851001616
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot5060708090100104%28%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 36.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot405060708595+$164K$164K
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
1.00400.00060.00-0.00-0.00
1.000.00450.00120.00-0.01-0.01
1.00-0.00500.00030.00-0.01-0.01
1.00-0.00550.00200.00-0.02-0.03
0.98-0.02600.00850.01-0.03-0.05
0.92-0.05650.02790.03-0.04-0.12
0.75-0.06700.05660.06-0.05-0.26
0.44-0.05750.06860.07-0.05-0.56
0.17-0.03800.04250.04-0.03-0.83
0.06-0.02850.01850.02-0.02-0.94
0.03-0.01900.00850.01-0.01-0.97
0.01-0.01950.00430.01-0.01-0.98
0.01-0.001000.00240.00-0.01-0.99

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

spot405570851001K0
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

spot30456075901051K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5K call contracts, 2K 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: ASH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk