Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 1:04 AM ET

BKSY max pain

Spot (delayed)$30.92
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$30-3.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.38±20.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.632K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$30largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3082.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$50Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $30

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$22.5-27.2%6d
Fri, Sep 18$30-3.0%34d
Fri, Nov 20$30-3.0%97d
Fri, Jan 15$17.5-43.4%153d
Fri, Feb 19$25-19.1%188d
Fri, Jan 21$10-67.7%524d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot30132538506375$10M$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, Sep 18

spot3012.52030456075644644
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BKSY 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

spot3012.520304560751K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot132538506375166%80%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 83.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 3012.52030456075+$20K$20K
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
0.99-0.0112.50.00210.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.01150.00400.01-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.0117.50.00720.01-0.01-0.04
0.94-0.02200.01240.01-0.02-0.06
0.89-0.0322.50.01990.02-0.03-0.11
0.83-0.03250.02980.03-0.03-0.18
0.61-0.04300.04840.04-0.04-0.39
0.38-0.04350.04810.04-0.04-0.63
0.21-0.03400.03520.03-0.04-0.80
0.13-0.03450.02360.02-0.03-0.89
0.08-0.02500.01590.01-0.02-0.94
0.05-0.01550.01100.01-0.02-0.96
0.04-0.01600.00790.01-0.01-0.98
0.03-0.01650.00580.01-0.01-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot5152545654K0
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

spot2.512.522.5406011K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 38K call contracts, 11K 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: BKSY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk