Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 2:27 AM ET

CAH max pain

Spot (delayed)$236.1
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$210-11.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$14.85±6.3% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.673K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$240largest call OI
Put wall$230largest put OI
IV3025.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $160

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$230-2.6%3d
Fri, Aug 28$235-0.5%10d
Fri, Sep 4$230-2.6%17d
Fri, Sep 11$245+3.8%24d
Fri, Sep 18$210-11.1%31d
Fri, Sep 25$235-0.5%38d
Fri, Oct 2$220-6.8%45d
Fri, Dec 18$195-17.4%122d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot21075124173222271320$39M$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 — 210 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot21075110145180230300982982
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CAH 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

spot21075110145180230300530530
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot13517220924628332099%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 25.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 160140165190230280+$797K$797K
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
0.98-0.011850.00130.03-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.011900.00190.03-0.02-0.02
0.97-0.021950.00260.05-0.02-0.03
0.96-0.032000.00380.06-0.03-0.04
0.91-0.052100.00750.11-0.05-0.09
0.82-0.072200.01370.18-0.08-0.18
0.65-0.102300.02070.26-0.10-0.35
0.43-0.112400.02250.27-0.11-0.57
0.24-0.092500.01740.22-0.09-0.77
0.12-0.062600.01080.14-0.06-0.89
0.06-0.042700.00610.09-0.04-0.95
0.03-0.022800.00340.05-0.02-0.99
0.02-0.012900.00190.03-0.02-1.00
0.01-0.013000.00110.02-0.02-1.00
0.01-0.013100.00070.01-0.02-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 38 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot120185220237.5252.52701K0
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

spot551151752202502953K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 22K call contracts, 17K 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: CAH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk