Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 12:50 AM ET

BMO max pain

Spot (delayed)$185.81
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$160-13.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.75±5.2% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.635K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$160largest call OI
Put wall$130largest put OI
IV3021.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$531Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $160

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$175-5.8%4d
Fri, Sep 18$160-13.9%32d
Fri, Oct 16$190+2.3%60d
Fri, Nov 20$150-19.3%95d
Fri, Dec 18$175-5.8%123d
Fri, Jan 15$145-22.0%151d
Fri, Mar 19$160-13.9%214d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot16075100125150175200$38M$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 — 160 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot160751051301501701902K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BMO 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

spot1607510513015017019033
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot12013615216818420078%19%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 21.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 16095120140160180200+$214K$214K
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
0.98-0.011500.00240.03-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.021550.00360.04-0.02-0.03
0.95-0.021600.00560.06-0.02-0.05
0.93-0.031650.00870.08-0.03-0.07
0.88-0.041700.01350.12-0.04-0.12
0.81-0.051750.02000.16-0.05-0.19
0.69-0.071800.02700.20-0.07-0.31
0.55-0.071850.03140.23-0.07-0.46
0.39-0.071900.03050.22-0.07-0.61
0.26-0.061950.02530.19-0.06-0.75
0.16-0.042000.01860.14-0.05-0.85

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1301451601751902208030
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

spot45801151501852403K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 12K 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: BMO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk