Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 11:20 PM ET

BW max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.39
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$2.5-75.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.4±52.0% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.072K puts / 33K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3088.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$146Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $1.5

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$10-3.8%4d
Fri, Aug 28$9-13.4%11d
Fri, Sep 4$9.5-8.6%18d
Fri, Sep 11$10-3.8%25d
Fri, Sep 18$10-3.8%32d
Fri, Sep 25$10.5+1.1%39d
Fri, Nov 20$11+5.9%95d
Fri, Jan 15$2.5-75.9%151d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot2.51714212835$60M$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 — 2.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot2.50.52.591422.5356K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BW open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot2.50.52.591422.535631631
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot1714212835304%100%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 105.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 1.50.52.591422.535+$28K$28K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.990.001.50.00280.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0020.00440.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.002.50.00620.00-0.00-0.02
0.90-0.0050.02130.01-0.00-0.09
0.86-0.0160.02880.01-0.01-0.13
0.79-0.017.50.03950.02-0.01-0.21
0.70-0.0190.04800.02-0.01-0.29
0.65-0.01100.05190.03-0.01-0.34
0.59-0.01110.05450.03-0.01-0.40
0.52-0.0112.50.05610.03-0.01-0.47
0.46-0.01140.05580.03-0.01-0.54
0.42-0.01150.05470.03-0.01-0.58
0.34-0.0117.50.05070.02-0.01-0.66
0.28-0.01200.04580.02-0.01-0.72
0.23-0.0122.50.04110.02-0.01-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 21 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2.5912.51622303K0
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

spot0.55913172312K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 79K call contracts, 26K 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: BW workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk