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

BUD max pain

Spot (delayed)$79.83
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$75-6.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.32±5.4% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.548K puts / 15K calls
Call wall$90largest call OI
Put wall$77.5largest put OI
IV3020.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$636Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $67.5

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$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

spot753046627894110$40M$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 — 75 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot75304557.57082.5952K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BUD 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

spot75304557.57082.5951313
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot455871849711082%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 21.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 67.537.55062.57587.5105+$591K$591K
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
0.9962.50.00310.01-0.00-0.01
0.98650.00510.01-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.0067.50.00850.02-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.01700.01430.03-0.01-0.05
0.91-0.0172.50.02430.04-0.01-0.09
0.85-0.02750.04000.06-0.02-0.15
0.73-0.0277.50.06020.08-0.03-0.27
0.56-0.03800.07520.10-0.03-0.45
0.38-0.0382.50.07280.10-0.03-0.64
0.23-0.02850.05610.08-0.02-0.80
0.13-0.0287.50.03750.05-0.02-0.90
0.07-0.01900.02350.04-0.01-0.96
0.04-0.0192.50.01440.02-0.02-0.99
0.03-0.01950.00890.02-0.02-1.00
0.01-0.001000.00350.01-0.02-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 29 are in the CSV. 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