Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 11:23 AM ET

BUD max pain

Spot (delayed)$79.83
Max pain · Fri, Sep 11$86+7.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.55±5.7% by Fri, Sep 11
Put/Call OI27.53468 puts / 17 calls
Call wall$87largest call OI
Put wall$86largest put OI
IV3020.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$145Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $83

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$80+0.2%6d
Fri, Aug 28$80+0.2%13d
Fri, Sep 4$81+1.5%20d
Fri, Sep 11$86+7.7%27d
Fri, Sep 18$75-6.1%34d
Fri, Sep 25$86+7.7%41d
Fri, Dec 18$80+0.2%125d
Fri, Jan 15$62.5-21.7%153d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot86808283858688$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 — 86 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot8680828487459459
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BUD open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 11.

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 11

spot8680828487120120
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot80828385868828%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 25.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spotflip 8380828487+$146K$146K
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 11

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.56-0.03800.08290.09-0.03-0.45
0.47-0.03810.08420.09-0.03-0.53
0.39-0.03820.08060.09-0.03-0.62
0.32-0.03830.07350.08-0.03-0.69
0.26-0.03840.06470.07-0.03-0.75
0.17-0.02860.04730.06-0.02-0.84
0.14-0.02870.04000.05-0.02-0.88
0.12-0.02880.03380.04-0.02-0.90

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

spot5577828690951K0
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

spot25506977.586947K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 55K call contracts, 36K 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: BUD workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk