Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 4:36 PM ET

ASPI max pain

Spot (delayed)$4.37
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$6+37.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.58±36.1% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.1613K puts / 11K calls
Call wall$9largest call OI
Put wall$3largest put OI
IV30101.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$13Kper 1% move

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, Aug 14$5+14.5%2d
Fri, Aug 21$4-8.4%9d
Fri, Aug 28$4-8.4%16d
Fri, Sep 4$0.5-88.5%23d
Fri, Sep 11$0.5-88.5%30d
Fri, Sep 18$6+37.5%37d
Fri, Sep 25$0.5-88.5%44d
Fri, Oct 16$6+37.5%65d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot614791215$7M$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, Oct 16

spot614710135K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ASPI 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

spot614710134545
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot14791215296%92%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 112.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot1471013+$11K$11K
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
0.98-0.0010.01480.00-0.00-0.02
0.94-0.0020.04810.00-0.00-0.06
0.84-0.0030.11860.00-0.00-0.16
0.65-0.0140.19750.01-0.01-0.34
0.45-0.0150.20460.01-0.01-0.54
0.32-0.0160.17330.01-0.01-0.67
0.24-0.0170.14060.01-0.01-0.75
0.18-0.0080.11420.01-0.00-0.81
0.14-0.0090.09380.00-0.00-0.85
0.12-0.00100.07800.00-0.00-0.88
0.09-0.00110.06570.00-0.00-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 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

spot1357101311K0
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

spot0.535.5810.51431K31K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 143K call contracts, 32K 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: ASPI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk