Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 19, 11:08 PM ET

DE max pain

Spot (delayed)$683.99
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$660-3.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$43.9±6.4% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI2.196K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$650largest call OI
Put wall$650largest put OI
IV3028.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$4.2Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Sep 25$670-2.0%5d
Fri, Oct 2$660-3.5%12d
Fri, Oct 9$680-0.6%19d
Fri, Oct 16$660-3.5%26d
Fri, Oct 23$670-2.0%33d
Fri, Oct 30$680-0.6%40d
Fri, Nov 20$680-0.6%61d
Fri, Dec 18$600-12.3%89d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot660470542614686758830$94M$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 — 660 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot6604705406106807508202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DE 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

spot6604705406106807508205353
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot47054261468675883092%26%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 29.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot490550610670730790+$2.6M$2.6M
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
0.92-0.176100.00270.29-0.17-0.09
0.89-0.206200.00340.37-0.20-0.12
0.85-0.246300.00410.45-0.24-0.15
0.80-0.286400.00490.53-0.28-0.20
0.75-0.326500.00570.60-0.32-0.25
0.69-0.356600.00640.67-0.35-0.32
0.62-0.376700.00700.72-0.37-0.38
0.55-0.386800.00740.75-0.39-0.46
0.47-0.386900.00750.75-0.39-0.53
0.40-0.377000.00730.73-0.37-0.61
0.33-0.347100.00690.69-0.35-0.68
0.27-0.317200.00620.63-0.32-0.74
0.21-0.277300.00550.56-0.28-0.80
0.17-0.237400.00470.48-0.24-0.84
0.13-0.207500.00400.40-0.20-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 37 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot330610662.5692.57207802610
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

spot2103304505706908202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 23K call contracts, 26K 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