Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 4:51 AM ET

CASH max pain

Spot (delayed)$85.85
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$85-1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.98±7.0% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.0633 puts / 596 calls
Call wall$95largest call OI
Put wall$75largest put OI
IV3027.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$125Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $85

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$85-1.0%8d
Fri, Sep 18$85-1.0%36d
Fri, Dec 18$70-18.5%127d
Fri, Mar 19$90+4.8%218d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot857077849198105$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 — 85 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot85708090100533533
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CASH 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

spot8570809010011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot707784919810582%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 25.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 85708090100+$117K$117K
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
0.88-0.04700.01200.05-0.04-0.12
0.84-0.04750.01860.07-0.04-0.17
0.75-0.04800.03040.09-0.04-0.25
0.58-0.04850.04940.11-0.04-0.42
0.34-0.04900.04660.10-0.04-0.67
0.21-0.04950.03000.08-0.04-0.80
0.15-0.041000.02040.07-0.04-0.86
0.12-0.041050.01490.06-0.04-0.89

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

spot6085951051155360
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

spot406080100120140536536
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 647 call contracts, 68 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: CASH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk