Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 11:43 PM ET

CORN max pain

Spot (delayed)$18.26
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$18-1.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.83±4.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.25168 puts / 669 calls
Call wall$18largest call OI
Put wall$18largest put OI
IV3017.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$55Kper 1% move

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$17-6.9%5d
Fri, Sep 18$18-1.4%33d
Fri, Nov 20$17-6.9%96d
Fri, Feb 19$16-12.4%187d
Fri, Mar 19$17-6.9%215d
Fri, Dec 17$22+20.5%488d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1871115182226$1M$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 — 18 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1871114172026414414
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CORN 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

spot1871114172026741741
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot17182021232464%17%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 17.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot711141720+$38K$38K
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
0.99-0.00110.00480.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00120.00740.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.00130.01190.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.00140.02000.00-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.00150.03620.00-0.00-0.03
0.94-0.00160.07240.01-0.00-0.06
0.87-0.00170.16830.01-0.00-0.13
0.64-0.01180.38910.02-0.01-0.36
0.29-0.01190.29760.02-0.01-0.72
0.16-0.01200.15760.01-0.01-0.86
0.04-0.00240.03090.01-0.00-0.98
0.03-0.00250.02350.00-0.00-0.98
0.03-0.00260.01840.00-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot7111519232751K0
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

spot7111519232751K51K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 276K call contracts, 6K 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: CORN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk