Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 9:12 PM ET

CZR max pain

Spot (delayed)$29.74
Max pain · Fri, Oct 2$30+0.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.69±5.7% by Fri, Oct 2
Put/Call OI0.941K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$29largest call OI
Put wall$30largest put OI
IV3012.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$85Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $29

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 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$30+0.9%5d
Fri, Aug 28$30+0.9%12d
Fri, Sep 4$30+0.9%19d
Fri, Sep 11$28-5.9%26d
Fri, Sep 18$29-2.5%33d
Fri, Sep 25$30+0.9%40d
Fri, Oct 2$30+0.9%47d
Fri, Dec 18$28-5.9%124d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot30283033353840$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 — 30 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spot30283032353740902902
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CZR open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 2.

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 2

spot302830323537407474
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spot28293030313244%4%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 17.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spotflip 29283032353740+$233K$233K
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 2

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.83-0.01280.12180.03-0.01-0.16
0.73-0.01290.22800.04-0.01-0.27
0.45-0.00300.40840.04-0.00-0.57
0.14-0.00310.21960.03-0.00-0.91
0.08-0.00320.10410.02-0.00-0.96
0.06-0.00330.06460.01-0.00-0.97
0.04-0.00350.03360.01-0.00-0.98
0.04-0.00360.02630.01-0.00-0.99
0.03-0.00370.02120.01-0.00-0.99
0.03-0.00390.01470.01-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 11 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot26283031324019K0
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

spot31825.5303544101K101K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 199K call contracts, 61K 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: CZR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk