Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 7, 12:28 AM ET

CAT max pain

Spot (delayed)$862.06
Max pain · Fri, Sep 11$900+4.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$89.45±10.4% by Fri, Sep 11
Put/Call OI2.83594 puts / 210 calls
Call wall$890largest call OI
Put wall$820largest put OI
IV3042.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$636Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 · Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 7$860-0.2%1d
Fri, Aug 14$850-1.4%8d
Fri, Aug 21$880+2.1%15d
Fri, Aug 28$880+2.1%22d
Fri, Sep 4$860-0.2%29d
Fri, Sep 11$900+4.4%36d
Fri, Sep 18$790-8.4%43d
Fri, Oct 16$870+0.9%71d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot90052066080094010801220$16M$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 — 900 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot900520710775830885950109109
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CAT open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 11.

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 11

spot9005207107758308859505050
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot5206608009401080122065%38%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 41.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot605715780840900960+$254K$254K
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 11

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.67-0.558200.00320.98-0.57-0.33
0.66-0.568250.00320.99-0.58-0.35
0.64-0.578300.00331.01-0.59-0.37
0.62-0.588350.00341.03-0.60-0.38
0.60-0.598400.00341.04-0.60-0.40
0.57-0.608500.00351.06-0.61-0.44
0.55-0.608550.00351.07-0.62-0.45
0.53-0.618600.00351.07-0.62-0.47
0.52-0.618650.00361.07-0.62-0.49
0.50-0.618700.00361.08-0.62-0.51
0.48-0.618750.00361.07-0.62-0.53
0.46-0.618800.00361.07-0.61-0.54
0.45-0.608850.00351.07-0.61-0.56
0.43-0.608900.00351.06-0.60-0.58
0.40-0.599000.00341.04-0.59-0.61

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot360680800887.597011802K0
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

spot17546068083095011609K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 154K call contracts, 163K 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: CAT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk