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

AXS max pain

Spot (delayed)$101.2
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$55-45.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.35±12.2% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.0651 puts / 797 calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$115largest put OI
IV3020.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$75Kper 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, 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

spot55557391109127145$4M$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 — 55 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot55557085100115130159159
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AXS open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 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, Dec 18

spot5555708510011513011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot60779411112814569%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 26.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot557085100115130+$29K$29K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.01650.00340.06-0.01-0.05
0.93-0.01700.00460.07-0.01-0.06
0.91-0.01750.00630.09-0.01-0.09
0.88-0.02800.00860.12-0.02-0.12
0.84-0.02850.01190.14-0.02-0.16
0.78-0.02900.01610.17-0.02-0.22
0.69-0.02950.02110.21-0.02-0.31
0.58-0.021000.02540.23-0.03-0.43
0.45-0.021050.02660.23-0.02-0.56
0.33-0.021100.02420.21-0.02-0.69
0.24-0.021150.02000.19-0.02-0.78
0.18-0.021200.01590.16-0.02-0.84
0.14-0.011250.01260.13-0.01-0.89
0.11-0.011300.01000.11-0.01-0.92
0.09-0.011350.00810.10-0.01-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 18 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