Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 19, 11:14 PM ET

DLO max pain

Spot (delayed)$14.2
Max pain · Fri, Feb 19$13-8.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.38±23.8% by Fri, Feb 19
Put/Call OI1.208K puts / 7K calls
Call wall$16largest call OI
Put wall$12largest put OI
IV3037.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$3Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $12

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 16$14-1.4%27d
Fri, Nov 20$13-8.5%62d
Fri, Dec 18$12-15.5%90d
Fri, Jan 15$9.47-33.3%118d
Fri, Feb 19$13-8.5%153d
Fri, May 21$11-22.5%244d
Fri, Dec 17$10-29.6%454d
Fri, Jan 21$12-15.5%489d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1351015202530$9M$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 — 13 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot1359121518218K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DLO open contracts per strike for Fri, Feb 19.

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, Feb 19

spot135912151821268268
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot5101520253075%42%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 46.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spotflip 125912151821+$110K$110K
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, Feb 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.0070.01350.01-0.00-0.05
0.94-0.0080.01910.01-0.00-0.06
0.92-0.0090.02680.01-0.00-0.09
0.89-0.00100.03740.02-0.00-0.12
0.84-0.00110.05110.02-0.00-0.16
0.78-0.00120.06680.03-0.00-0.23
0.70-0.01130.08180.03-0.01-0.31
0.61-0.01140.09220.04-0.01-0.40
0.52-0.01150.09590.04-0.01-0.50
0.43-0.01160.09350.04-0.01-0.59
0.36-0.01170.08710.04-0.01-0.67
0.29-0.01180.07900.03-0.01-0.74
0.24-0.00190.07030.03-0.01-0.80
0.20-0.00200.06190.03-0.01-0.84
0.17-0.00210.05420.02-0.00-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot271115192371K0
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

spot161116213075K75K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 201K 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: DLO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk