Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 9:13 PM ET

DBE max pain

Spot (delayed)$31.55
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$11-65.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.35±13.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.0313 puts / 416 calls
Call wall$11largest call OI
Put wall$28largest put OI
IV3040.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$11Kper 1% move

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$27-14.4%8d
Fri, Sep 18$28-11.3%36d
Fri, Oct 16$11-65.1%64d
Fri, Dec 18$15-52.5%127d
Fri, Jan 15$38+20.4%155d
Fri, Mar 19$32+1.4%218d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot11111621253035$1M$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 — 11 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot11111523262933155155
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DBE 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

spot1111152326293311
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot22252730323550%37%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 40.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot111523262933+$5K$5K
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
0.88-0.01240.02570.03-0.01-0.12
0.86-0.01250.03080.03-0.01-0.13
0.84-0.01260.03740.03-0.01-0.16
0.81-0.01270.04550.04-0.01-0.19
0.77-0.01280.05530.04-0.01-0.23
0.71-0.01290.06590.04-0.01-0.28
0.64-0.01300.07470.05-0.01-0.35
0.56-0.01310.07840.05-0.01-0.43
0.42-0.02330.07070.05-0.02-0.57
0.33-0.02350.05770.05-0.02-0.66

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 17 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1115232629331550
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

spot111723293541220220
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 973 call contracts, 620 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: DBE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk