Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 11:08 PM ET

CAAP max pain

Spot (delayed)$24.84
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$20-19.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.9±15.7% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.52393 puts / 760 calls
Call wall$30largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3049.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$14Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $17.5

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 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$25+0.6%8d
Fri, Sep 18$22.5-9.4%36d
Fri, Oct 16$20-19.5%64d
Fri, Jan 15$15-39.6%155d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot20152025303540$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot2015202535263263
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CAAP 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

spot201520253511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot152025303540110%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 46.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 17.515202535+$9K$9K
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
0.95-0.00150.01130.01-0.01-0.04
0.93-0.0017.50.02050.01-0.01-0.07
0.87-0.01200.03860.02-0.01-0.13
0.75-0.0122.50.06960.03-0.01-0.25
0.54-0.01250.09320.04-0.01-0.47
0.21-0.01300.05760.03-0.01-0.80
0.10-0.01350.02950.02-0.01-0.91
0.06-0.01400.01670.01-0.00-0.96

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

spot1522.530403000
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

spot12.517.522.53040319319
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 936 call contracts, 757 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: CAAP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk