Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 5:49 PM ET

BULL max pain

Spot (delayed)$8.14
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$6.5-20.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.37±16.8% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI0.06267 puts / 5K calls
Call wall$8largest call OI
Put wall$6.5largest put OI
IV3066.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$65Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $4.5

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$7.5-7.8%4d
Fri, Aug 28$7-14.0%11d
Fri, Sep 4$7.5-7.8%18d
Fri, Sep 11$7-14.0%25d
Fri, Sep 18$7.5-7.8%32d
Fri, Sep 25$6.5-20.1%39d
Fri, Oct 2$7.5-7.8%46d
Fri, Oct 16$7.5-7.8%60d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot6.524791214$3M$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 — 6.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot6.525.57.59.511.54K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BULL open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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 25

spot6.525.57.59.511.5109109
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot468101214175%53%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 64.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spotflip 4.525.57.59.511.5+$53K$53K
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 25

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.004.50.02800.00-0.00-0.04
0.95-0.0050.03960.00-0.00-0.06
0.93-0.005.50.05630.00-0.00-0.07
0.90-0.0160.08050.01-0.01-0.10
0.85-0.016.50.11390.01-0.01-0.15
0.79-0.0170.15590.01-0.01-0.22
0.69-0.017.50.19880.01-0.01-0.31
0.58-0.0180.22820.01-0.01-0.42
0.47-0.018.50.23370.01-0.01-0.54
0.37-0.0190.21800.01-0.01-0.64
0.28-0.019.50.19100.01-0.01-0.73
0.21-0.01100.16110.01-0.01-0.79
0.17-0.0110.50.13310.01-0.01-0.84
0.13-0.01110.10870.01-0.01-0.88
0.10-0.0011.50.08840.01-0.00-0.91

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1.546.5911.51539K0
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

spot1.54.57.510.51430210K210K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 787K call contracts, 121K 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: BULL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk