Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 2:29 AM ET

DCBO max pain

Spot (delayed)$22.11
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$20-9.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3±13.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI69.00207 puts / 3 calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$17.5largest put OI
IV3064.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$4Kper 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$20-9.5%8d
Fri, Sep 18$20-9.5%36d
Fri, Nov 20$10-54.8%99d
Fri, Feb 19$12.5-43.5%190d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot20182023252830$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot2017.5202530200200
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DCBO 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

spot2017.520253011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot182023252830108%52%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 52.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot17.5202530+$4K$4K
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
0.81-0.0317.50.03850.02-0.03-0.19
0.70-0.03200.06360.02-0.03-0.30
0.33-0.02250.07230.03-0.02-0.66
0.19-0.02300.04080.02-0.02-0.80

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot7.512.517.522.530408460
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

spot2.51017.525402K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 4K 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: DCBO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk