Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 22, 10:03 AM ET

C max pain

Spot (delayed)$134.98
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$135+0.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.13±6.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.5671K puts / 45K calls
Call wall$140largest call OI
Put wall$120largest put OI
IV3031.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2.9Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedTue, Oct 13usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$133-1.5%3d
Fri, Oct 2$135+0.0%10d
Fri, Oct 9$134-0.7%17d
Fri, Oct 16$135+0.0%24d← 1st expiry after earnings (Tue, Oct 13)
Fri, Oct 23$132-2.2%31d
Fri, Oct 30$134-0.7%38d
Fri, Nov 20$130-3.7%59d
Fri, Dec 18$105-22.2%87d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1355584113142171200$466M$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 — 135 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot1355510012613514417528K28K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)C open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot135551001261351441752K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot5584113142171200128%29%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 32.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot75115128136144170+$6.5M$6.5M
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.75-0.071280.02640.11-0.08-0.25
0.72-0.081290.02800.12-0.08-0.28
0.70-0.081300.02960.12-0.08-0.31
0.67-0.081310.03100.13-0.09-0.34
0.63-0.091320.03220.13-0.09-0.37
0.60-0.091330.03320.14-0.09-0.40
0.57-0.091340.03400.14-0.09-0.44
0.53-0.091350.03450.14-0.09-0.47
0.50-0.091360.03480.14-0.09-0.51
0.46-0.091370.03480.14-0.09-0.54
0.43-0.091380.03450.14-0.09-0.58
0.40-0.091390.03400.14-0.09-0.61
0.36-0.081400.03320.13-0.09-0.64
0.33-0.081410.03210.13-0.08-0.68
0.30-0.081420.03090.12-0.08-0.71

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 51 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot90123130137144152.54K0
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

spot3062.59512613915561K61K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 426K call contracts, 581K 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: C workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk