Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 21, 10:47 AM ET

EL max pain

Spot (delayed)$93.58
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$96+2.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.1±4.4% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI0.41416 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$115largest call OI
Put wall$97largest put OI
IV3033.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$65Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $86

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$96+2.6%4d
Fri, Oct 2$96+2.6%11d
Fri, Oct 9$94+0.4%18d
Fri, Oct 16$90-3.8%25d
Fri, Oct 23$90-3.8%32d
Fri, Oct 30$85-9.2%39d
Fri, Nov 20$95+1.5%60d
Fri, Dec 18$100+6.9%88d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot96506784101118135$3M$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 — 96 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot9650808896104117175175
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)EL open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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 25

spot9650808896104117102102
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot657789101113125144%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 39.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spotflip 8665839097104115+$31K$31K
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 25

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.91-0.06870.03220.02-0.06-0.10
0.87-0.07880.04100.03-0.07-0.13
0.83-0.09890.05120.03-0.09-0.17
0.78-0.10900.06230.04-0.10-0.22
0.72-0.11910.07350.04-0.11-0.29
0.64-0.12920.08300.05-0.13-0.36
0.55-0.13930.08910.05-0.13-0.45
0.46-0.13940.09030.05-0.13-0.54
0.38-0.12950.08630.05-0.12-0.63
0.30-0.11960.07820.04-0.11-0.71
0.23-0.10970.06760.04-0.10-0.78
0.17-0.08980.05630.03-0.08-0.83
0.13-0.07990.04570.03-0.07-0.88
0.10-0.061000.03650.02-0.06-0.91
0.07-0.051010.02880.02-0.05-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 45 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot507988971061182210
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

spot25778910111314530K30K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 111K call contracts, 66K 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: EL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk