Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 11:11 AM ET

BBAR max pain

Spot (delayed)$15.26
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$18+18.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.28±21.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI5.6974 puts / 13 calls
Call wall$18largest call OI
Put wall$13largest put OI
IV3061.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1Kper 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$19+24.5%3d
Fri, Sep 18$18+18.0%31d
Fri, Oct 16$15-1.7%59d
Fri, Jan 15$18+18.0%150d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot18131516181921$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 — 18 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot18131618214040
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BBAR 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

spot18131618214040
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot131516181921118%50%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 91.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot13161821+$795$795
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
0.82-0.01130.08500.01-0.01-0.18
0.59-0.02150.14220.02-0.02-0.42
0.45-0.02160.13620.02-0.02-0.55
0.35-0.02170.11660.02-0.02-0.66
0.28-0.02180.09690.01-0.02-0.73
0.23-0.02190.08060.01-0.02-0.78
0.16-0.02210.05760.01-0.02-0.84

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot813161922252K0
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

spot310152025304K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 16K call contracts, 13K 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: BBAR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk