Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 11:17 PM ET

BMA max pain

Spot (delayed)$77.9
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$80+2.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$10.48±13.4% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.38116 puts / 308 calls
Call wall$115largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3051.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $80

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$75-3.7%4d
Fri, Sep 18$80+2.7%32d
Fri, Oct 16$95+22.0%60d
Fri, Jan 15$90+15.5%151d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8060718293104115$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 — 80 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot8060809095100115140140
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BMA 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

spot8060809095100115128128
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot60718293104115117%52%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 53.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 8060809095100115+$21K$21K
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
0.89-0.05600.01080.05-0.05-0.12
0.45-0.07800.03220.10-0.07-0.54
0.24-0.06900.02150.07-0.06-0.76
0.18-0.06950.01690.06-0.06-0.81
0.15-0.061000.01350.06-0.06-0.85
0.09-0.051150.00780.04-0.05-0.91

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

spot5570851001151302K0
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

spot355575951151353K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 8K 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: BMA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk