Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 3:57 AM ET

COST max pain

Spot (delayed)$950.15
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$940-1.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$58.97±6.2% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.3826K puts / 19K calls
Call wall$1,000largest call OI
Put wall$500largest put OI
IV3022.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$10.7Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedThu, Sep 24usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 · 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 7$947.5-0.3%1d
Fri, Aug 14$945-0.5%8d
Fri, Aug 21$950-0.0%15d
Fri, Aug 28$950-0.0%22d
Fri, Sep 4$925-2.6%29d
Fri, Sep 11$915-3.7%36d
Fri, Sep 18$940-1.1%43d
Fri, Oct 16$945-0.5%71d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Sep 24)

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot940470684898111213261540$870M$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 — 940 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot94047076086592099011802K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)COST 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

spot9404707608659209901180599599
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot47068489811121326154081%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot74083089095010401220+$6.5M$6.5M
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
0.75-0.269000.00421.04-0.28-0.25
0.73-0.279050.00441.09-0.29-0.28
0.71-0.289100.00461.13-0.30-0.30
0.66-0.309200.00491.20-0.32-0.35
0.61-0.329300.00521.26-0.33-0.40
0.58-0.329350.00521.28-0.34-0.43
0.56-0.339400.00531.29-0.34-0.45
0.50-0.339500.00541.31-0.34-0.51
0.48-0.339550.00541.30-0.34-0.54
0.45-0.339600.00541.30-0.34-0.56
0.42-0.339650.00531.28-0.34-0.59
0.40-0.329700.00521.26-0.33-0.62
0.35-0.319800.00501.22-0.32-0.67
0.30-0.299900.00471.15-0.30-0.72
0.26-0.2710000.00441.07-0.28-0.76

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot480770885950101511503K0
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

spot480660830935102012409K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 148K call contracts, 194K 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: COST workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk