Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 11:31 PM ET

BCPC max pain

Spot (delayed)$178.51
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$170-4.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.05±5.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.502 puts / 4 calls
Call wall$185largest call OI
Put wall$160largest put OI
IV3021.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $185

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$170-4.8%5d
Fri, Sep 18$170-4.8%33d
Fri, Nov 20$175-2.0%96d
Fri, Feb 19$160-10.4%187d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot170160165170175180185$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 — 170 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot17016017018544
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BCPC 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

spot17016017018511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 185160170185+$4K$4K
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
0.86-0.061600.01190.12-0.06-0.14
0.74-0.071700.02280.18-0.07-0.26
0.29-0.061850.03020.19-0.06-0.70

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

spot1501651751851952204590
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

spot105125145165185210459459
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 903 call contracts, 170 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: BCPC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk