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

CRH max pain

Spot (delayed)$95.51
Max pain · Fri, Sep 11$98+2.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.57±6.9% by Fri, Sep 11
Put/Call OI1.8220 puts / 11 calls
Call wall$108largest call OI
Put wall$98largest put OI
IV3031.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$6Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 — 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

spot98879298103109114$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 — 98 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot9887919610310911277
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CRH open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 11.

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 11

spot9887919610310911211
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot87929810310911445%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 32.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot879196103109112+$3K$3K
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 11

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.84-0.05870.02440.06-0.05-0.16
0.79-0.05890.03040.07-0.05-0.21
0.77-0.06900.03360.08-0.06-0.24
0.73-0.06910.03700.08-0.06-0.27
0.70-0.06920.04050.09-0.06-0.31
0.57-0.06950.04920.10-0.06-0.44
0.52-0.06960.05090.10-0.06-0.49
0.42-0.06980.05130.10-0.06-0.60
0.32-0.051000.04750.09-0.06-0.70
0.20-0.041030.03690.07-0.04-0.83
0.11-0.031070.02300.05-0.03-0.93
0.09-0.031080.02020.04-0.03-0.95
0.08-0.021090.01770.04-0.03-0.96
0.07-0.021100.01560.03-0.03-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 18 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