Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 3:00 AM ET

DB max pain

Spot (delayed)$38.38
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$35-8.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.9±7.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.195K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$40largest call OI
Put wall$27largest put OI
IV3028.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$240Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $37

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$35-8.8%5d
Fri, Sep 18$35-8.8%33d
Fri, Oct 16$33-14.0%61d
Fri, Jan 15$33-14.0%152d
Fri, Jan 21$37-3.6%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot35152331394755$7M$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 — 35 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot35152631364150843843
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DB 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

spot35152631364150198198
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot202734414855112%28%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 30.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 37152631364150+$118K$118K
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
0.95-0.00310.01870.01-0.01-0.05
0.94-0.01320.02530.01-0.01-0.06
0.91-0.01330.03440.02-0.01-0.09
0.88-0.01340.04650.02-0.01-0.12
0.83-0.01350.06210.03-0.01-0.17
0.77-0.01360.08010.04-0.02-0.23
0.68-0.02370.09780.04-0.02-0.32
0.58-0.02380.11030.05-0.02-0.43
0.47-0.02390.11350.05-0.02-0.54
0.36-0.02400.10650.04-0.02-0.65
0.27-0.02410.09250.04-0.02-0.74
0.19-0.01420.07570.03-0.01-0.82
0.14-0.01430.05940.03-0.01-0.88
0.10-0.01440.04510.02-0.01-0.92
0.07-0.01450.03390.02-0.01-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 27 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1528323640444K0
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

spot3172632384412K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 41K call contracts, 36K 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: DB workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk