Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 11:10 PM ET

CRMD max pain

Spot (delayed)$7.57
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$9+18.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.43±32.0% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.602K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$12largest call OI
Put wall$7largest put OI
IV3046.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$8Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $2

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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$8+5.7%5d
Fri, Sep 18$8+5.7%33d
Fri, Dec 18$9+18.9%124d
Fri, Jan 15$8+5.7%152d
Fri, Mar 19$8+5.7%215d
Fri, Jan 21$5-33.9%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot914791215$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 — 9 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot91471013588588
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CRMD open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 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, Dec 18

spot914710135252
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot257101215153%47%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 66.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 22581114+$4K$4K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.0010.00380.00-0.00-0.02
0.99-0.0020.00960.00-0.00-0.03
0.97-0.0030.01850.01-0.00-0.05
0.94-0.0040.03320.01-0.00-0.08
0.90-0.0050.05770.01-0.00-0.12
0.82-0.0060.09460.01-0.00-0.20
0.70-0.0070.13570.02-0.00-0.33
0.55-0.0080.15950.02-0.00-0.49
0.40-0.0090.15600.02-0.00-0.65
0.29-0.00100.13570.01-0.00-0.77
0.21-0.00110.11100.01-0.00-0.87
0.15-0.00120.08800.01-0.00-0.94
0.11-0.00130.06870.01-0.00-0.98
0.08-0.00140.05340.01-1.00
0.06-0.00150.04140.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot15913177K0
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

spot1591317258K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 27K call contracts, 17K 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: CRMD workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk