Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 28, 11:35 PM ET

AU max pain

Spot (delayed)$113.19
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$115+1.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.05±10.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.177K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$120largest call OI
Put wall$100largest put OI
IV3053.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$380Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $125

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$115+1.6%21d
Fri, Oct 16$90-20.5%49d
Fri, Dec 18$85-24.9%112d
Fri, Jan 15$100-11.7%140d
Fri, Mar 19$90-20.5%203d
Fri, Apr 16$95-16.1%231d
Fri, May 21$90-20.5%266d
Fri, Aug 20$90-20.5%357d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot115507294116138160$36M$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 — 115 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1155070901101301502K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AU 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

spot115507090110130150541541
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot557697118139160201%47%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 54.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 1256585105125145+$496K$496K
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
0.99-0.01800.00100.01-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.01850.00240.01-0.01-0.01
0.96-0.03900.00520.02-0.03-0.04
0.92-0.05950.00980.04-0.05-0.08
0.85-0.081000.01600.06-0.08-0.15
0.75-0.111050.02220.09-0.11-0.25
0.62-0.131100.02640.10-0.13-0.38
0.48-0.141150.02740.11-0.14-0.52
0.35-0.131200.02530.10-0.13-0.65
0.25-0.111250.02130.09-0.11-0.75
0.17-0.091300.01670.07-0.09-0.83
0.11-0.071350.01240.05-0.07-0.89
0.07-0.051400.00880.04-0.05-0.94
0.05-0.041450.00610.03-0.04-0.96
0.03-0.021500.00410.02-0.02-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1360901201501805K0
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

spot1330509013017010K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 30K call contracts, 55K 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: AU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk