Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 9:50 PM ET

BEKE max pain

Spot (delayed)$16.85
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$17+0.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.65±9.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.142K puts / 15K calls
Call wall$21largest call OI
Put wall$17largest put OI
IV3039.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$341Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $10

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$17+0.9%4d
Fri, Aug 28$17+0.9%11d
Fri, Sep 4$16-5.0%18d
Fri, Sep 11$15-11.0%25d
Fri, Sep 18$17+0.9%32d
Fri, Sep 25$18+6.8%39d
Fri, Oct 16$17+0.9%60d
Fri, Dec 18$17+0.9%123d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1751117232935$23M$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 — 17 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot17512151821278K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BEKE 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

spot17512151821271717
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot101520253035125%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 41.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 1051215182127+$156K$156K
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
0.98-0.00100.01180.00-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.00110.01740.00-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.01120.02640.01-0.01-0.05
0.93-0.01130.04130.01-0.01-0.07
0.90-0.01140.06700.01-0.01-0.10
0.83-0.01150.11110.01-0.01-0.17
0.70-0.01160.17400.02-0.01-0.30
0.51-0.01170.20650.02-0.01-0.50
0.33-0.01180.17310.02-0.01-0.68
0.22-0.01190.12710.01-0.01-0.79
0.16-0.01200.09240.01-0.01-0.85
0.12-0.01210.06860.01-0.01-0.90
0.09-0.01220.05220.01-0.01-0.93
0.04-0.01250.02600.01-0.01-0.97
0.03-0.00270.01770.00-0.00-0.98

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

spot5121517.519.59500
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

spot31114.518223215K15K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 52K call contracts, 18K 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: BEKE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk