Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 5, 11:50 PM ET

BAC max pain

Spot (delayed)$63.3
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$55-13.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.76±5.9% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.25195K puts / 156K calls
Call wall$65largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3020.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$23.0Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $60

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 · 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 7$61-3.6%2d
Fri, Aug 14$62-2.1%9d
Fri, Aug 21$57.5-9.2%16d
Fri, Aug 28$60-5.2%23d
Fri, Sep 4$62-2.1%30d
Fri, Sep 11$62-2.1%37d
Fri, Sep 18$55-13.1%44d
Fri, Oct 16$57.5-9.2%72d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot55203448627690$553M$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, Sep 18

spot5520364248608050K50K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BAC 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

spot552036424860803K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot33445667799081%18%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 21.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 60203642486080+$16.1M$16.1M
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
0.99480.00340.01-0.00-0.01
0.990.00490.00420.01-0.00-0.02
0.99-0.00500.00520.01-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.0052.50.00950.01-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.01550.01850.02-0.01-0.06
0.90-0.0157.50.03640.04-0.01-0.12
0.78-0.02600.06380.07-0.02-0.24
0.59-0.0262.50.08670.09-0.02-0.43
0.37-0.02650.08630.08-0.02-0.64
0.18-0.0167.50.06200.06-0.01-0.82
0.08-0.01700.03320.03-0.01-0.93
0.02-0.00750.00970.01-0.00-0.98
0.01-0.00800.00490.01-0.99
0.01-0.00850.00280.01-0.99
0.01-0.00900.00180.00-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 33 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot30425057637038K0
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

spot183747566472.5173K173K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1.0M call contracts, 1.1M 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: BAC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk