Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 4:27 PM ET

DXYZ max pain

Spot (delayed)$32.1
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$25-22.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.5±23.4% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.268K puts / 33K calls
Call wall$45largest call OI
Put wall$22.5largest put OI
IV3094.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$777Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $25

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$25-22.1%5d
Fri, Sep 18$25-22.1%33d
Fri, Dec 18$25-22.1%124d
Fri, Mar 19$22.5-29.9%215d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot25132538506375$117M$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 — 25 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot2512.520304560759K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DXYZ 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

spot2512.52030456075681681
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot132538506375149%87%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 95.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 2512.52030456075+$233K$233K
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
1.00-0.0012.50.00050.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00150.00160.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0117.50.00410.00-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.01200.00900.01-0.01-0.04
0.92-0.0222.50.01640.02-0.02-0.09
0.85-0.03250.02520.02-0.03-0.15
0.65-0.05300.03920.04-0.05-0.35
0.45-0.05350.04120.04-0.05-0.55
0.29-0.05400.03480.03-0.05-0.71
0.19-0.04450.02630.03-0.04-0.82
0.12-0.03500.01890.02-0.03-0.89
0.08-0.02550.01330.01-0.02-0.93
0.05-0.01600.00930.01-0.02-0.96
0.03-0.01650.00650.01-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot12.5203045607513K0
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

spot12.5203045607513K13K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 74K call contracts, 36K 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: DXYZ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk