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

AU max pain

Spot (delayed)$113.19
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$100-11.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$31.2±27.6% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI3.4922K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$110largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3053.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$942Kper 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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — 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

spot100154881114147180$144M$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot100153250851201557K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AU open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot100153250851201557070
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot154881114147180192%54%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 56.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot15325085120155+$472K$472K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.87-0.03800.00490.14-0.03-0.12
0.84-0.03850.00600.17-0.03-0.16
0.80-0.04900.00700.19-0.04-0.20
0.75-0.04950.00790.22-0.04-0.24
0.71-0.051000.00870.24-0.05-0.29
0.66-0.051050.00930.26-0.05-0.34
0.61-0.051100.00970.27-0.05-0.39
0.56-0.061150.00990.27-0.06-0.44
0.51-0.061200.01000.28-0.06-0.49
0.47-0.061250.00990.28-0.06-0.53
0.42-0.061300.00970.27-0.06-0.58
0.39-0.061350.00940.27-0.06-0.62
0.35-0.051400.00900.26-0.06-0.65
0.32-0.051450.00860.25-0.05-0.69
0.29-0.051500.00820.24-0.05-0.72

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 41 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