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

CPER max pain

Spot (delayed)$39.77
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$37-7.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.53±8.9% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.191K puts / 7K calls
Call wall$40largest call OI
Put wall$40largest put OI
IV3027.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$601Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $30

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 — 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

spot37253137434955$9M$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 — 37 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot372529333741452K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CPER open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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 16

spot372529333741453434
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot25313743495584%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 27.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 30252933374145+$148K$148K
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 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.93-0.01330.02310.02-0.01-0.07
0.91-0.01340.02990.03-0.01-0.09
0.88-0.01350.03860.03-0.01-0.12
0.84-0.01360.04920.04-0.01-0.16
0.79-0.01370.06120.05-0.01-0.21
0.72-0.01380.07320.06-0.01-0.28
0.65-0.01390.08270.06-0.01-0.36
0.56-0.01400.08730.06-0.01-0.45
0.47-0.01410.08650.07-0.02-0.54
0.40-0.01420.08130.06-0.01-0.62
0.33-0.01430.07370.06-0.01-0.69
0.27-0.01440.06530.05-0.01-0.75
0.23-0.01450.05700.05-0.01-0.80
0.10-0.01500.02780.03-0.01-0.93
0.05-0.01550.01440.02-0.01-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 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