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

AU max pain

Spot (delayed)$113.19
Max pain · Fri, May 21$90-20.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$43.15±38.1% by Fri, May 21
Put/Call OI33.502K puts / 74 calls
Call wall$110largest call OI
Put wall$70largest put OI
IV3053.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$95Kper 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

spot906583101119137155$1M$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 — 90 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21

spot9065851001151551K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AU open contracts per strike for Fri, May 21.

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, May 21

spot9065851001151555353
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21

spot658310111913715560%56%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 57.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, May 21

spot6585100115155+$59K$59K
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, May 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.83-0.02800.00440.24-0.03-0.16
0.80-0.03850.00500.26-0.03-0.19
0.76-0.03900.00550.29-0.03-0.23
0.73-0.03950.00590.31-0.03-0.26
0.69-0.031000.00630.33-0.04-0.30
0.66-0.041050.00660.35-0.04-0.33
0.62-0.041100.00680.36-0.04-0.37
0.59-0.041150.00700.37-0.04-0.41
0.56-0.041200.00710.38-0.04-0.44
0.49-0.041300.00710.38-0.04-0.51
0.36-0.041550.00660.36-0.04-0.65

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

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