Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 11:13 AM ET

CWH max pain

Spot (delayed)$6.22
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$6-3.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.9±14.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.392K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$9largest call OI
Put wall$6largest put OI
IV3060.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$16Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $6

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$7+12.5%3d
Fri, Sep 18$6-3.5%31d
Fri, Dec 18$8+28.6%122d
Fri, Jan 15$8+28.6%150d
Fri, Mar 19$7+12.5%213d
Fri, Jan 21$8+28.6%521d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot63610131720$6M$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 — 6 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot63691215181K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CWH 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

spot6369121518174174
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot3610131720229%57%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 60.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 6369121518+$5K$5K
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
0.98-0.0030.02210.00-0.00-0.02
0.95-0.0040.05700.00-0.00-0.05
0.87-0.0050.15480.00-0.01-0.13
0.63-0.0160.34050.01-0.01-0.38
0.32-0.0170.29700.01-0.01-0.70
0.16-0.0180.17710.01-0.01-0.85
0.10-0.0090.10760.00-0.00-0.92
0.06-0.00100.06950.00-0.00-0.96
0.04-0.00110.04720.00-0.00-0.98
0.03-0.00120.03340.00-0.00-0.99
0.02-0.00130.02440.00-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 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

spot15913173K0
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

spot161116223537K37K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 94K call contracts, 10K 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: CWH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk