Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 10:20 AM ET

DEI max pain

Spot (delayed)$11.68
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$12+2.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.78±15.2% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI3.503K puts / 853 calls
Call wall$12largest call OI
Put wall$11largest put OI
IV3040.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$61Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $11

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$12+2.7%5d
Fri, Sep 18$12+2.7%33d
Fri, Oct 16$12.5+7.0%61d
Fri, Jan 15$12+2.7%152d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot12101011111212$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 — 12 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot121011122K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DEI 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

spot1210111222
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 11101112+$51K$51K
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
0.80-0.01100.11390.01-0.01-0.20
0.68-0.01110.19790.01-0.01-0.32
0.44-0.01120.27460.01-0.01-0.56

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

spot71112.51414K0
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

spot16912.5161914K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 26K call contracts, 9K 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: DEI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk