Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 11:10 PM ET

DAVE max pain

Spot (delayed)$333.14
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$270-19.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$66.05±19.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.47210 puts / 443 calls
Call wall$310largest call OI
Put wall$210largest put OI
IV3058.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$104Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $100

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$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

spot27080196312428544660$14M$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 — 270 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot27080145220310400540125125
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DAVE 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

spot2708014522031040054077
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot80196312428544660176%59%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 62.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 10095185260340420560+$57K$57K
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
0.86-0.152600.00250.30-0.17-0.14
0.83-0.182700.00290.34-0.18-0.17
0.79-0.202800.00330.38-0.20-0.21
0.76-0.222900.00370.42-0.22-0.24
0.71-0.233000.00410.46-0.24-0.29
0.67-0.253100.00440.49-0.25-0.33
0.62-0.263200.00460.51-0.27-0.38
0.57-0.273300.00480.53-0.27-0.43
0.52-0.273400.00480.53-0.28-0.48
0.48-0.273500.00480.53-0.28-0.53
0.43-0.273600.00480.53-0.27-0.57
0.39-0.273700.00460.51-0.27-0.61
0.35-0.263800.00450.50-0.26-0.65
0.32-0.253900.00420.48-0.25-0.69
0.28-0.244000.00400.45-0.24-0.72

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 51 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