Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 21, 3:57 PM ET

EL max pain

Spot (delayed)$94.11
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$90-4.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.9±7.3% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.656K puts / 9K calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3034.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $60

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Sep 25$96+2.0%4d
Fri, Oct 2$96+2.0%11d
Fri, Oct 9$94-0.1%18d
Fri, Oct 16$90-4.4%25d
Fri, Oct 23$90-4.4%32d
Fri, Oct 30$85-9.7%39d
Fri, Nov 20$95+0.9%60d
Fri, Dec 18$100+6.3%88d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot90356187113139165$60M$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 — 90 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot903560851101351603K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)EL 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

spot903560851101351607979
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot507396119142165118%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 34.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 60557595115135155+$632K$632K
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
1.00600.00030.00-0.00-0.00
1.00650.00080.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00700.00210.01-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.01750.00500.01-0.01-0.03
0.94-0.02800.01140.03-0.02-0.06
0.86-0.04850.02300.06-0.04-0.14
0.71-0.06900.03790.09-0.06-0.29
0.50-0.07950.04630.10-0.07-0.51
0.28-0.061000.03960.08-0.06-0.73
0.14-0.041050.02530.06-0.04-0.88
0.06-0.021100.01360.03-0.02-0.96
0.03-0.011150.00680.02-0.02-1.00
0.01-0.011200.00340.01-0.02-1.00
0.01-0.001250.00170.01-0.02-1.00
0.00-0.001300.00090.00-0.02-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 27 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