Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 10:50 AM ET

CBT max pain

Spot (delayed)$87.88
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$75-14.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$15.85±18.0% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.08158 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$110largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3030.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$236Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $85

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$85-3.3%5d
Fri, Sep 18$80-9.0%33d
Fri, Oct 16$80-9.0%61d
Fri, Jan 15$75-14.7%152d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot7545638199117135$6M$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 — 75 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot754565851051251K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CBT open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot7545658510512511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot4563819911713568%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 34.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 85456585105125+$114K$114K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.01550.00420.04-0.01-0.04
0.94-0.01600.00620.06-0.01-0.07
0.90-0.01650.00810.09-0.01-0.10
0.85-0.01700.01090.13-0.02-0.15
0.79-0.02750.01440.16-0.02-0.21
0.70-0.02800.01770.19-0.02-0.30
0.60-0.02850.02000.22-0.02-0.40
0.50-0.02900.02080.22-0.03-0.50
0.40-0.02950.02000.22-0.02-0.60
0.32-0.021000.01830.20-0.02-0.68
0.25-0.021050.01600.18-0.02-0.75
0.20-0.021100.01360.16-0.02-0.81
0.15-0.011150.01140.13-0.01-0.86
0.12-0.011200.00950.11-0.01-0.89
0.09-0.011250.00780.10-0.01-0.92

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot457585951052470
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

spot4060801001201K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 549 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: CBT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk