Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 11:44 PM ET

ECPG max pain

Spot (delayed)$104.12
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$100-4.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.23±8.9% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.33155 puts / 465 calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$100largest put OI
IV3036.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$95Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $60

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$90-13.6%5d
Fri, Sep 18$100-4.0%33d
Fri, Dec 18$55-47.2%124d
Fri, Mar 19$87.5-16.0%215d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot10050647892106120$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot100507077.58595110392392
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ECPG 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

spot100507077.5859511033
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot60728496108120119%36%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 60507077.58595110+$85K$85K
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
0.92-0.05800.00770.05-0.05-0.09
0.90-0.0582.50.00910.06-0.05-0.10
0.88-0.05850.01090.06-0.05-0.12
0.86-0.0687.50.01300.07-0.05-0.14
0.83-0.06900.01560.08-0.06-0.17
0.76-0.06950.02240.10-0.06-0.24
0.64-0.071000.03050.12-0.07-0.36
0.47-0.071050.03480.13-0.07-0.53
0.31-0.061100.03050.11-0.06-0.68
0.15-0.041200.01670.07-0.04-0.85

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 17 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot32.552.56577.592.51104110
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

spot22.54057.57592.51201K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 729 call contracts, 1K 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: ECPG workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk