Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 11:10 AM ET

CPER max pain

Spot (delayed)$39.77
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$38-4.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.7±6.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.191K puts / 7K calls
Call wall$43largest call OI
Put wall$38largest put OI
IV3027.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$745Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $36

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$38-4.5%3d
Fri, Sep 18$38-4.5%31d
Fri, Oct 16$37-7.0%59d
Fri, Jan 15$33-17.0%150d
Thu, Jun 17$37-7.0%303d
Fri, Jul 16$45+13.2%332d
Fri, Aug 20$39-1.9%367d
Fri, Jan 21$27-32.1%521d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot38283236404448$4M$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 — 38 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot382835384144473K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CPER 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

spot382835384144478282
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot34374042454846%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 36283538414447+$365K$365K
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
0.96-0.01330.01850.01-0.01-0.04
0.94-0.01340.02550.01-0.01-0.06
0.92-0.01350.03540.02-0.01-0.08
0.89-0.01360.04960.02-0.01-0.11
0.84-0.01370.06870.03-0.01-0.16
0.77-0.01380.09200.04-0.02-0.23
0.67-0.02390.11350.04-0.02-0.34
0.55-0.02400.12370.05-0.02-0.46
0.43-0.02410.11860.05-0.02-0.58
0.33-0.02420.10370.04-0.02-0.68
0.25-0.02430.08630.04-0.02-0.76
0.20-0.02440.07030.03-0.02-0.82
0.15-0.01450.05690.03-0.01-0.86
0.12-0.01460.04610.02-0.01-0.90
0.10-0.01470.03760.02-0.01-0.92

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 17 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2532364044486K0
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

spot19263340475412K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 84K call contracts, 18K 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: CPER workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk