Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 9:30 PM ET

BITB max pain

Spot (delayed)$34.36
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$30-12.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.9±25.9% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.054 puts / 74 calls
Call wall$31largest call OI
Put wall$33largest put OI
IV3032.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3Kper 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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$34-1.0%7d
Fri, Sep 18$37+7.7%35d
Fri, Dec 18$33-4.0%126d
Fri, Jan 15$30-12.7%154d
Fri, Mar 19$30-12.7%217d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot30303438424650$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 — 30 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot3030333642502929
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BITB open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot3030333642501111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot30343842465045%39%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 42.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot3033364250+$996$996
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.74-0.01300.02710.09-0.01-0.27
0.71-0.01310.02910.09-0.01-0.30
0.68-0.01320.03090.10-0.01-0.33
0.65-0.01330.03250.10-0.01-0.36
0.61-0.01340.03380.10-0.01-0.40
0.58-0.01350.03490.10-0.01-0.44
0.54-0.01360.03570.11-0.01-0.47
0.44-0.01390.03610.10-0.01-0.58
0.41-0.01400.03570.10-0.01-0.62
0.35-0.01420.03420.10-0.01-0.69
0.30-0.01440.03190.09-0.01-0.75
0.27-0.01450.03060.09-0.01-0.78

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2535424956653420
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

spot2032404856651K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 9K call contracts, 2K 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: BITB workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk