Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 2:01 PM ET

D max pain

Spot (delayed)$68.58
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$65-5.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.48±6.5% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.441K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$70largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3018.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$603Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $67.5

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

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$70+2.1%4d
Fri, Sep 18$65-5.2%32d
Fri, Oct 16$65-5.2%60d
Fri, Dec 18$65-5.2%123d
Fri, Jan 15$60-12.5%151d
Fri, Mar 19$65-5.2%214d
Thu, Jun 17$72.5+5.7%304d
Fri, Jan 21$60-12.5%522d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot65405162738495$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 — 65 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot654050607080775775
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)D open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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 16

spot65405060708044
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot40516273849562%19%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 19.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 67.54050607080+$272K$272K
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 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99500.00200.00-0.00-0.02
0.99-0.0052.50.00380.01-0.01-0.03
0.98-0.00550.00710.01-0.01-0.04
0.97-0.0157.50.01320.02-0.01-0.06
0.94-0.01600.02380.03-0.01-0.09
0.87-0.0162.50.04070.06-0.01-0.15
0.77-0.02650.06240.09-0.01-0.26
0.60-0.0267.50.08000.11-0.02-0.42
0.39-0.01700.07980.11-0.02-0.64
0.23-0.0172.50.06100.09-0.01-0.81
0.13-0.01750.04000.06-0.01-0.91
0.08-0.0177.50.02510.04-0.00-0.95
0.05-0.01800.01600.03-0.00-0.98
0.02-0.00850.00700.01-0.99
0.01-0.00900.00340.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot405562.57077.5908K0
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

spot27.54052.56577.510017K17K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 59K call contracts, 27K 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: D workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk