Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 19, 11:03 PM ET

COST max pain

Spot (delayed)$896.7
Max pain · Fri, Oct 23$900+0.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$49.25±5.5% by Fri, Oct 23
Put/Call OI1.413K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$900largest call OI
Put wall$760largest put OI
IV3023.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.3Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedThu, Sep 24usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$920+2.6%5d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Sep 24)
Fri, Oct 2$920+2.6%12d
Fri, Oct 9$925+3.2%19d
Fri, Oct 16$930+3.7%26d
Fri, Oct 23$900+0.4%33d
Fri, Oct 30$900+0.4%40d
Fri, Nov 20$925+3.2%61d
Fri, Dec 18$920+2.6%89d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot90054067280493610681200$79M$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 — 900 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot9005407408208709201000489489
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)COST open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 23.

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, Oct 23

spot9005407408208709201000317317
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot5406728049361068120075%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot6707908458959451115+$1.6M$1.6M
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, Oct 23

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.75-0.298600.00500.89-0.30-0.26
0.72-0.318650.00530.94-0.31-0.28
0.69-0.328700.00550.98-0.33-0.31
0.67-0.338750.00571.01-0.34-0.34
0.64-0.348800.00591.04-0.35-0.37
0.60-0.358850.00611.07-0.36-0.40
0.57-0.368900.00621.09-0.36-0.43
0.54-0.368950.00631.10-0.37-0.47
0.51-0.369000.00631.11-0.37-0.50
0.48-0.369050.00631.11-0.37-0.53
0.45-0.369100.00631.10-0.37-0.56
0.42-0.359150.00621.09-0.37-0.59
0.39-0.359200.00611.07-0.36-0.63
0.36-0.349250.00591.04-0.35-0.66
0.33-0.339300.00581.01-0.34-0.69

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

spot54086090594599511351K0
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

spot440720880950105013008K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 125K call contracts, 129K 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