Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 2:27 AM ET

CAMT max pain

Spot (delayed)$174.13
Max pain · Fri, Feb 19$130-25.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$73.95±42.5% by Fri, Feb 19
Put/Call OI0.2618 puts / 69 calls
Call wall$180largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3072.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$8Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $170

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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$170-2.4%8d
Fri, Sep 18$135-22.5%36d
Fri, Nov 20$180+3.4%99d
Fri, Jan 15$100-42.6%155d
Fri, Feb 19$130-25.3%190d
Fri, Dec 17$100-42.6%491d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot13065108151194237280$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 — 130 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot13065801101501802103131
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CAMT open contracts per strike for Fri, Feb 19.

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, Feb 19

spot13065801101501802101010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot6510815119423728089%74%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 75.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spotflip 1706580110150180210+$4K$4K
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, Feb 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.93-0.02850.00120.16-0.04-0.07
0.89-0.041000.00170.23-0.05-0.10
0.86-0.041100.00210.27-0.06-0.13
0.85-0.051150.00230.29-0.06-0.15
0.79-0.061300.00290.35-0.07-0.20
0.71-0.081500.00350.42-0.08-0.28
0.65-0.081650.00380.46-0.09-0.34
0.63-0.091700.00390.47-0.09-0.36
0.59-0.091800.00410.48-0.09-0.41
0.55-0.091900.00420.49-0.09-0.45
0.52-0.092000.00420.50-0.09-0.48
0.48-0.092100.00420.50-0.09-0.52
0.30-0.082700.00370.44-0.08-0.71
0.28-0.082800.00360.42-0.07-0.73

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot50901301652002701K0
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

spot30701101501902601K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 11K call contracts, 12K 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: CAMT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk