Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 2:01 PM ET

ELMD max pain

Spot (delayed)$42.91
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$40-6.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.05±16.4% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.603 puts / 5 calls
Call wall$45largest call OI
Put wall$40largest put OI
IV3061.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$22per 1% move · flip ≈ $40

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$25-41.7%7d
Fri, Sep 18$40-6.8%35d
Fri, Nov 20$25-41.7%98d
Fri, Feb 19$35-18.4%189d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot40253239465360$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 — 40 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot40254045556033
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ELMD 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

spot40254045556011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot253239465360125%61%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 62.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 402540455560+$239$239
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
0.92-0.04250.00790.02-0.04-0.08
0.65-0.04400.04310.05-0.04-0.35
0.42-0.05450.04500.05-0.05-0.58
0.23-0.05550.02440.04-0.05-0.77
0.19-0.05600.01930.04-0.06-0.81

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot152535455565440
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

spot12.5203045604848
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 179 call contracts, 46 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: ELMD workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk