Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 21, 3:59 AM ET

BJ max pain

Spot (delayed)$92.03
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$100+8.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.07±6.6% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.601K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$100largest put OI
IV3027.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$245Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $95

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Oct 16$100+8.7%25d
Fri, Nov 20$90-2.2%60d
Fri, Jan 15$100+8.7%116d
Fri, Feb 19$90-2.2%151d
Fri, May 21$105+14.1%242d
Thu, Jun 17$85-7.6%269d
Fri, Jan 21$80-13.1%487d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot100657789101113125$5M$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot1006580901001101252K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BJ 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

spot1006580901001101258181
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot657789101113125101%26%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 95658090100110125+$152K$152K
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
1.00-0.00650.00120.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.01750.00560.01-0.01-0.02
0.94-0.02800.01310.03-0.02-0.06
0.86-0.03850.02980.06-0.03-0.15
0.66-0.05900.05300.09-0.05-0.35
0.38-0.05950.05450.10-0.05-0.64
0.18-0.041000.03510.07-0.04-0.84
0.09-0.021050.01910.04-0.03-0.95
0.04-0.011100.01020.02-0.01-0.98
0.02-0.011150.00560.01-0.00-1.00
0.01-0.001250.00190.01-1.00

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

spot4070951201451703K0
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

spot4065901151401653K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 8K call contracts, 7K 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: BJ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk