Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 28, 10:05 AM ET

BIRK max pain

Spot (delayed)$35.31
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$40+13.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.53±12.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI4.5447K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$40largest call OI
Put wall$27.5largest put OI
IV3044.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.2Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 18$37.5+6.2%21d
Fri, Oct 16$40+13.3%49d
Fri, Jan 15$37.5+6.2%140d
Fri, Apr 16$35-0.9%231d
Fri, Jan 21$30-15.0%511d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot40182839496070$66M$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 — 40 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot4017.527.537.547.557.532K32K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BIRK open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot4017.527.537.547.557.59292
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot182839496070137%40%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 43.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot17.527.537.547.557.5+$891K$891K
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.0017.50.00220.00-0.00-0.01
0.99200.00350.00-0.00-0.01
0.9822.50.00680.01-0.00-0.02
0.96-0.00250.01260.01-0.01-0.04
0.91-0.0127.50.02290.02-0.01-0.08
0.84-0.01300.03860.03-0.01-0.16
0.71-0.0232.50.05610.04-0.02-0.28
0.55-0.02350.06650.05-0.02-0.44
0.39-0.0237.50.06410.05-0.02-0.60
0.26-0.02400.05300.04-0.02-0.73
0.17-0.0242.50.04020.03-0.01-0.82
0.11-0.01450.02920.03-0.01-0.89
0.08-0.0147.50.02080.02-0.01-0.92
0.05-0.01500.01490.01-0.00-0.95
0.04-0.0152.50.01070.01-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot17.527.537.547.557.5757K0
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

spot17.527.537.547.557.57532K32K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 24K call contracts, 55K 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: BIRK workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk