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

DB max pain

Spot (delayed)$38.38
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$33-14.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.23±11.0% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.815K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$36largest call OI
Put wall$24largest put OI
IV3028.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$404Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $35

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$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

spot33152331394755$11M$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 — 33 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot331526313641501K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DB 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

spot331526313641506666
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot20273441485582%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 32.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 35152631364150+$110K$110K
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
0.91-0.01310.02390.03-0.01-0.09
0.89-0.01320.02970.03-0.01-0.11
0.86-0.01330.03670.04-0.01-0.14
0.82-0.01340.04470.04-0.01-0.18
0.77-0.01350.05330.05-0.01-0.23
0.71-0.01360.06170.06-0.01-0.29
0.65-0.01370.06880.06-0.01-0.35
0.57-0.01380.07380.06-0.02-0.43
0.50-0.02390.07580.06-0.02-0.51
0.43-0.01400.07490.06-0.01-0.58
0.36-0.01410.07120.06-0.01-0.65
0.29-0.01420.06560.06-0.01-0.72
0.24-0.01430.05880.05-0.01-0.78
0.19-0.01440.05150.04-0.01-0.82
0.16-0.01450.04430.04-0.01-0.87

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