Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 9:39 PM ET

DAVE max pain

Spot (delayed)$333.14
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$310-6.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$45.4±13.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.53903 puts / 590 calls
Call wall$640largest call OI
Put wall$250largest put OI
IV3058.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$41Kper 1% move

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$320-3.9%3d
Fri, Aug 28$365+9.6%10d
Fri, Sep 4$345+3.6%17d
Fri, Sep 11$305-8.4%24d
Fri, Sep 18$310-6.9%31d
Fri, Sep 25$290-12.9%38d
Fri, Oct 2$290-12.9%45d
Fri, Oct 16$270-19.0%59d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot31080196312428544660$15M$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 — 310 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot31080155200290380520312312
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DAVE 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

spot3108015520029038052077
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot80196312428544660215%56%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 58.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot145185250320390480+$61K$61K
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
0.92-0.142600.00240.15-0.15-0.08
0.89-0.182700.00300.18-0.19-0.11
0.85-0.222800.00380.22-0.22-0.15
0.81-0.262900.00460.26-0.26-0.19
0.76-0.293000.00530.30-0.30-0.24
0.70-0.323100.00600.34-0.33-0.30
0.63-0.353200.00650.37-0.35-0.37
0.56-0.363300.00680.38-0.37-0.44
0.49-0.373400.00690.39-0.37-0.51
0.43-0.363500.00680.38-0.37-0.58
0.37-0.353600.00650.36-0.35-0.64
0.31-0.333700.00600.34-0.33-0.69
0.26-0.313800.00550.32-0.31-0.74
0.22-0.283900.00500.29-0.28-0.79
0.18-0.254000.00440.26-0.25-0.82

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 50 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot170270327.53654304851K0
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

spot201602203203804704K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 14K call contracts, 14K 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: DAVE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk