Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 3:58 PM ET

CALM max pain

Spot (delayed)$80.44
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$85+5.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.3±11.6% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.53595 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3031.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$44Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $60

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$85+5.7%4d
Fri, Sep 18$90+11.9%32d
Fri, Oct 16$85+5.7%60d
Fri, Nov 20$60-25.4%95d
Fri, Feb 19$45-44.1%186d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8545597387101115$3M$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 — 85 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot8545607590105416416
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CALM 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

spot854560759010566
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot5567799110311562%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 6045607590105+$47K$47K
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
1.00450.00050.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00500.00170.01-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.01550.00410.03-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.01600.00660.03-0.01-0.05
0.91-0.02650.01160.06-0.02-0.10
0.83-0.03700.01870.08-0.03-0.17
0.72-0.03750.02700.11-0.04-0.29
0.56-0.04800.03290.13-0.04-0.44
0.40-0.04850.03270.13-0.04-0.61
0.26-0.03900.02740.11-0.03-0.75
0.17-0.03950.02040.08-0.03-0.85
0.12-0.021000.01490.07-0.02-0.90
0.11-0.031050.01200.06-0.02-0.91
0.10-0.021100.00980.06-0.02-0.93
0.10-0.031150.00880.06-0.03-0.92

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

spot456075901051202K0
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

spot4060801001201405K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 14K call contracts, 13K 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: CALM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk