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

ASH max pain

Spot (delayed)$74.37
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$60-19.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.03±10.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.09350 puts / 4K calls
Call wall$75largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3033.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$696Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $60

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 — 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

spot60304254667890$6M$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 — 60 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot6030456075901K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ASH 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

spot60304560759011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot304254667890140%36%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 36.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 603045607590+$267K$267K
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
1.00-0.00400.00080.00-0.01-0.02
0.99-0.01450.00260.01-0.02-0.03
0.98-0.02500.00640.01-0.02-0.05
0.95-0.04550.01240.03-0.03-0.08
0.89-0.04600.01920.05-0.03-0.12
0.81-0.04650.02580.07-0.03-0.20
0.67-0.04700.03570.10-0.04-0.33
0.47-0.04750.04420.11-0.04-0.53
0.27-0.03800.03680.09-0.03-0.72
0.16-0.02850.02440.07-0.02-0.84
0.10-0.02900.01610.05-0.02-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. 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