Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 11:50 PM ET

AXS max pain

Spot (delayed)$101.2
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$85-16.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.1±6.0% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.26143 puts / 543 calls
Call wall$85largest call OI
Put wall$110largest put OI
IV3020.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$84Kper 1% move

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, Aug 21$110+8.7%5d
Fri, Sep 18$85-16.0%33d
Fri, Dec 18$55-45.7%124d
Fri, Mar 19$65-35.8%215d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot85557289106123140$3M$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 — 85 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot85557085100115216216
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AXS 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

spot8555708510011555
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot55728910612314086%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot607590105120+$63K$63K
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
0.97-0.02650.00230.02-0.02-0.02
0.97-0.02700.00330.02-0.02-0.03
0.96-0.02750.00470.03-0.02-0.04
0.94-0.03800.00710.04-0.03-0.06
0.92-0.03850.01110.05-0.03-0.08
0.88-0.03900.01850.06-0.03-0.12
0.80-0.03950.03340.09-0.03-0.20
0.60-0.041000.05850.12-0.04-0.40
0.32-0.041050.05120.11-0.04-0.68
0.19-0.031100.03070.09-0.04-0.82
0.13-0.031150.01960.07-0.03-0.88
0.10-0.031200.01360.05-0.03-0.92
0.04-0.021400.00500.03-0.03-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 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

spot5575951151353460
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

spot557595115135155348348
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 687 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: AXS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk