Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 5:54 PM ET

COMP max pain

Spot (delayed)$12.29
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$10-18.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.3±26.9% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.06612 puts / 11K calls
Call wall$12largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3053.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$143Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $5

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 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$11-10.5%3d
Fri, Sep 18$10-18.6%31d
Fri, Nov 20$10-18.6%94d
Fri, Jan 15$7-43.0%150d
Fri, Feb 19$12-2.3%185d
Fri, Jan 21$7-43.0%521d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot101611152025$12M$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, Nov 20

spot1015913175K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)COMP open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot101591317100100
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot2711162025258%61%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 67.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 51591317+$77K$77K
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.0050.01150.01-0.00-0.04
0.94-0.0060.01680.01-0.00-0.06
0.92-0.0070.02440.01-0.01-0.08
0.89-0.0080.03510.01-0.01-0.11
0.85-0.0190.04980.01-0.01-0.15
0.79-0.01100.06810.02-0.01-0.21
0.70-0.01110.08660.02-0.01-0.30
0.60-0.01120.09920.02-0.01-0.40
0.50-0.01130.10270.03-0.01-0.50
0.41-0.01140.09860.02-0.01-0.59
0.34-0.01150.09050.02-0.01-0.67
0.28-0.01160.08090.02-0.01-0.73
0.23-0.01170.07130.02-0.01-0.78
0.19-0.01180.06240.02-0.01-0.82
0.14-0.01200.04760.01-0.00-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot15913172113K0
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

spot1611162120K20K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 99K call contracts, 35K 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: COMP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk