Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 3:52 PM ET

CRH max pain

Spot (delayed)$95.51
Max pain · Fri, Sep 4$96+0.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.8±6.1% by Fri, Sep 4
Put/Call OI0.61185 puts / 301 calls
Call wall$105largest call OI
Put wall$85largest put OI
IV3031.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$52Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $105

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$100+4.7%4d
Fri, Aug 28$105+9.9%11d
Fri, Sep 4$96+0.5%18d
Fri, Sep 11$98+2.6%25d
Fri, Sep 18$105+9.9%32d
Fri, Sep 25$95-0.5%39d
Fri, Oct 2$92-3.7%46d
Fri, Dec 18$110+15.2%123d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot9675839199107115$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 — 96 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot96759498102111250250
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CRH open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 4.

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 4

spot96759498102111253253
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot7583919910711572%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 33.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spotflip 105759498102111+$65K$65K
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 4

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.03750.00590.02-0.03-0.04
0.94-0.04800.01050.03-0.04-0.06
0.89-0.05850.01940.04-0.05-0.12
0.87-0.05860.02190.04-0.06-0.13
0.62-0.07940.05310.08-0.08-0.39
0.57-0.08950.05640.08-0.08-0.44
0.51-0.07960.05840.09-0.08-0.50
0.45-0.07970.05890.09-0.07-0.56
0.39-0.07980.05770.08-0.07-0.62
0.34-0.07990.05490.08-0.07-0.68
0.29-0.061000.05100.07-0.07-0.73
0.24-0.061010.04630.07-0.06-0.78
0.21-0.051020.04150.06-0.06-0.81
0.15-0.041040.03240.05-0.05-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot951001051101151251K0
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

spot42.582.5931031141505K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 21K call contracts, 19K 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: CRH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk