Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 11:13 PM ET

BXC max pain

Spot (delayed)$86.52
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$100+15.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.65±15.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI2.72188 puts / 69 calls
Call wall$80largest call OI
Put wall$100largest put OI
IV3064.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$13Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $80

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$65-24.9%4d
Fri, Sep 18$100+15.6%32d
Fri, Nov 20$80-7.5%95d
Fri, Dec 18$60-30.7%123d
Fri, Feb 19$75-13.3%186d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1003551678399115$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot10035608095110121121
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BXC 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

spot1003560809511022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot3551678399115170%61%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 64.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 8035608095110+$17K$17K
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
0.99-0.01350.00070.01-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.02400.00100.01-0.02-0.01
0.95-0.04550.00380.03-0.04-0.05
0.93-0.04600.00560.04-0.04-0.07
0.85-0.07700.01150.06-0.07-0.15
0.78-0.08750.01550.08-0.08-0.22
0.69-0.09800.01940.10-0.09-0.31
0.58-0.10850.02220.10-0.10-0.42
0.47-0.10900.02290.11-0.10-0.53
0.37-0.09950.02150.10-0.10-0.64
0.28-0.091000.01890.09-0.09-0.72
0.22-0.081050.01590.08-0.08-0.79
0.17-0.071100.01320.07-0.07-0.84
0.13-0.061150.01080.06-0.06-0.88

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

spot405570851001152740
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

spot25456585105125466466
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 834 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: BXC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk