Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 1:02 PM ET

BCO max pain

Spot (delayed)$114.55
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$110-4.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.75±8.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.382K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$140largest call OI
Put wall$105largest put OI
IV3032.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$438Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $130

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$115+0.4%5d
Fri, Sep 18$110-4.0%33d
Fri, Nov 20$120+4.8%96d
Fri, Dec 18$125+9.1%124d
Fri, Jan 15$80-30.2%152d
Fri, Mar 19$110-4.0%215d
Thu, Jun 17$110-4.0%305d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1107094118142166190$36M$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 — 110 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot11070951151351554K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BCO 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

spot1107095115135155119119
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot7094118142166190100%33%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 33.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 1307095115135155+$428K$428K
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
0.99750.00100.01-0.01-0.01
0.99800.00170.01-0.01-0.01
0.96-0.01900.00500.03-0.02-0.04
0.94-0.02950.00840.05-0.03-0.07
0.89-0.031000.01380.07-0.04-0.11
0.81-0.041050.02130.10-0.05-0.20
0.68-0.061100.02930.13-0.06-0.32
0.52-0.061150.03380.14-0.07-0.48
0.36-0.061200.03170.14-0.06-0.65
0.23-0.051250.02510.11-0.05-0.78
0.15-0.041300.01810.08-0.04-0.87
0.10-0.031350.01260.06-0.03-0.92
0.06-0.021400.00870.04-0.02-0.96
0.04-0.021450.00600.03-0.01-0.98
0.03-0.011500.00420.02-0.02-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot751051251451654K0
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

spot55801051301551804K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 4K 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: BCO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk