Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 2:04 PM ET

BWET max pain

Spot (delayed)$382.3
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$400+4.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$230.9±60.4% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI12.5025 puts / 2 calls
Call wall$360largest call OI
Put wall$125largest put OI
IV30102.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2Kper 1% move

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$310-18.9%4d
Fri, Sep 18$210-45.1%32d
Fri, Oct 16$235-38.5%60d
Fri, Nov 20$250-34.6%95d
Fri, Dec 18$255-33.3%123d
Fri, Mar 19$400+4.6%214d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot400125180235290345400$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 — 400 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot40012520023529036066
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BWET open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot40012520023529036011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot125180235290345400128%106%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 106.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot125200235290360+$731$731
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.90-0.342000.00130.31-0.16-0.14
0.85-0.342200.00140.49-0.17-0.16
0.82-0.342350.00140.54-0.18-0.18
0.79-0.342500.00140.63-0.19-0.19
0.70-0.342900.00140.79-0.20-0.24
0.63-0.333350.00140.90-0.21-0.29
0.58-0.323600.00140.94-0.21-0.32
0.53-0.314000.00140.98-0.21-0.36

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 8 strikes around the money — all 10 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot80250295340385425540
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

spot241001702352753202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 551 call contracts, 5K 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: BWET workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk