Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 3:01 AM ET

DE max pain

Spot (delayed)$615.89
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$580-5.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$64.2±10.4% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.826K puts / 8K calls
Call wall$700largest call OI
Put wall$530largest put OI
IV3038.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3.1Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $680
Earnings · expectedThu, Aug 13usually before the open

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 · 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 7$590-4.2%1d
Fri, Aug 14$605-1.8%8d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Aug 13)
Fri, Aug 21$600-2.6%15d
Fri, Aug 28$620+0.7%22d
Fri, Sep 4$650+5.5%29d
Fri, Sep 11$620+0.7%36d
Fri, Sep 18$580-5.8%43d
Fri, Dec 18$520-15.6%134d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot580300436572708844980$241M$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 — 580 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot5803004104905706608001K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DE 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

spot580300410490570660800126126
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot300436572708844980118%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 37.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 680390460530600680820+$1.7M$1.7M
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
0.82-0.245500.00320.57-0.25-0.19
0.78-0.265600.00360.63-0.28-0.22
0.74-0.295700.00400.69-0.30-0.26
0.70-0.315800.00430.74-0.32-0.30
0.65-0.335900.00460.79-0.34-0.35
0.60-0.346000.00480.82-0.35-0.40
0.56-0.356100.00500.84-0.36-0.45
0.50-0.356200.00510.85-0.36-0.50
0.46-0.356300.00500.84-0.35-0.55
0.41-0.346400.00500.83-0.35-0.60
0.32-0.316600.00460.76-0.32-0.70
0.28-0.296700.00430.71-0.30-0.74
0.24-0.276800.00400.66-0.28-0.78
0.18-0.237000.00330.56-0.23-0.84
0.13-0.197200.00260.45-0.19-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 44 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3105105906256707304590
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

spot2103604805706407603K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 30K call contracts, 30K 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: DE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk