Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 8, 11:06 PM ET

DQ max pain

Spot (delayed)$14.74
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$20+35.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.15±21.4% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI16.3820K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$24largest call OI
Put wall$17largest put OI
IV3063.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$335Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $9

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · 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, Aug 21$16+8.6%8d
Fri, Sep 18$14-5.0%36d
Fri, Oct 16$20+35.7%64d
Fri, Jan 15$17+15.3%155d
Fri, Jan 21$15+1.8%526d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot201815212835$32M$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, Oct 16

spot201131823293513K13K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DQ 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

spot20113182329353232
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot91419253035132%50%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 61.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 9914192430+$238K$238K
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
0.99-0.0010.00090.00-0.00-0.01
0.92-0.0190.02450.01-0.01-0.08
0.89-0.01100.03400.01-0.01-0.10
0.85-0.01110.04690.01-0.01-0.14
0.80-0.01120.06300.02-0.01-0.20
0.72-0.01130.07970.02-0.01-0.28
0.63-0.01140.09200.02-0.01-0.37
0.53-0.01150.09620.03-0.01-0.46
0.45-0.01160.09320.03-0.01-0.55
0.37-0.01170.08620.02-0.01-0.63
0.31-0.01180.07790.02-0.01-0.69
0.26-0.01190.06950.02-0.01-0.74
0.23-0.01200.06160.02-0.01-0.78
0.19-0.01210.05460.02-0.01-0.81
0.17-0.01220.04840.02-0.01-0.84

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 26 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot110162126323650
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

spot191725334214K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 14K call contracts, 40K 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: DQ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk