Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 6:26 PM ET

CCXI max pain

Spot (delayed)$17.62
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$10-43.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.18±29.4% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.277K puts / 26K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV30132.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$270Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $5

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$15-14.8%4d
Fri, Sep 18$10-43.2%32d
Fri, Nov 20$10-43.2%95d
Fri, Feb 19$10-43.2%186d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot103814192530$33M$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot102.57.512.517.522.53010K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CCXI 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

spot102.57.512.517.522.530614614
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot3814192530493%86%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 125.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 5510152025+$170K$170K
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
1.002.50.00030.00-0.00-0.00
1.0050.00090.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.007.50.00300.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.00100.01100.00-0.01-0.03
0.89-0.0212.50.03280.01-0.02-0.11
0.74-0.03150.05170.02-0.03-0.26
0.59-0.0417.50.05640.02-0.04-0.41
0.47-0.05200.05360.02-0.05-0.53
0.38-0.0522.50.04840.02-0.05-0.63
0.30-0.04250.04270.02-0.04-0.70
0.21-0.04300.03260.01-0.04-0.80

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

spot2.51015202518K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.53019K19K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 63K call contracts, 17K 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: CCXI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk