Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 12:40 AM ET

EH max pain

Spot (delayed)$5.99
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$7+16.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.4±23.4% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.061K puts / 20K calls
Call wall$11largest call OI
Put wall$6largest put OI
IV3073.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$59Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $7

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$6+0.2%4d
Fri, Sep 18$6+0.2%32d
Fri, Oct 16$7+16.9%60d
Fri, Nov 20$7+16.9%95d
Fri, Jan 15$7+16.9%151d
Fri, Jan 21$5-16.5%522d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot73610131720$19M$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 — 7 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot736912151814K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)EH 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

spot736912151899
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot3610131720211%68%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 71.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 7369121518+$37K$37K
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
0.93-0.0030.03860.00-0.00-0.07
0.87-0.0040.08130.01-0.00-0.13
0.75-0.0150.15360.01-0.01-0.25
0.55-0.0160.21880.01-0.01-0.45
0.36-0.0170.20110.01-0.01-0.64
0.25-0.0180.15450.01-0.01-0.76
0.18-0.0190.11850.01-0.01-0.82
0.15-0.00100.09380.01-0.01-0.86
0.12-0.00110.07670.01-0.00-0.89
0.10-0.00120.06440.00-0.00-0.91
0.09-0.00130.05520.00-0.00-0.92

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 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

spot159131714K0
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

spot1611162235144K144K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 247K call contracts, 14K 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: EH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk