Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 2:21 PM ET

CCJ max pain

Spot (delayed)$99.47
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$100+0.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$11±11.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.1159K puts / 53K calls
Call wall$110largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3044.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $55

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$95-4.5%6d
Fri, Aug 28$95-4.5%13d
Fri, Sep 4$94-5.5%20d
Fri, Sep 11$98-1.5%27d
Fri, Sep 18$100+0.5%34d
Fri, Sep 25$100+0.5%41d
Fri, Oct 2$99-0.5%48d
Fri, Oct 16$95-4.5%62d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1004575105135165195$398M$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot100457510513516519521K21K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CCJ 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

spot10045751051351651954040
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot4575105135165195137%32%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 44.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 555075100125150+$4.9M$4.9M
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
1.00-0.00650.00070.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.01700.00170.01-0.01-0.01
0.97-0.01750.00390.02-0.01-0.03
0.94-0.02800.00780.04-0.02-0.06
0.88-0.04850.01370.06-0.04-0.12
0.79-0.06900.02040.09-0.06-0.21
0.67-0.07950.02620.11-0.07-0.34
0.53-0.081000.02900.12-0.08-0.48
0.39-0.071050.02800.12-0.07-0.62
0.26-0.061100.02400.10-0.07-0.75
0.17-0.051150.01850.08-0.05-0.84
0.11-0.041200.01320.06-0.04-0.91
0.06-0.021250.00890.04-0.03-0.96
0.04-0.021300.00580.03-0.01-0.98
0.02-0.011350.00360.02-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 31 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot5585941031121553K0
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

spot2055839610916057K57K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 183K call contracts, 228K 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: CCJ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk