Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 27, 3:18 AM ET

EMBJ max pain

Spot (delayed)$75.27
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$70-7.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.55±11.4% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.773K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$75largest call OI
Put wall$70largest put OI
IV3034.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$182Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $40

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, Sep 18$75-0.4%22d
Fri, Oct 16$70-7.0%50d
Fri, Nov 20$65-13.6%85d
Fri, Jan 15$50-33.6%141d
Fri, Apr 16$60-20.3%232d
Fri, Jan 21$55-26.9%512d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot703549637791105$10M$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 — 70 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot703550658095903903
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)EMBJ 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

spot703550658095112112
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot3549637791105134%33%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 38.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 403550658095+$152K$152K
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
0.98-0.00400.00160.01-0.01-0.02
0.98-0.01450.00260.01-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.01500.00420.02-0.01-0.04
0.95-0.01550.00690.03-0.02-0.06
0.91-0.02600.01170.05-0.02-0.09
0.84-0.03650.01960.07-0.03-0.16
0.72-0.04700.03010.09-0.04-0.28
0.55-0.04750.03760.11-0.04-0.45
0.37-0.04800.03590.11-0.04-0.64
0.23-0.03850.02800.09-0.03-0.78
0.15-0.03900.01980.07-0.02-0.87
0.09-0.02950.01360.05-0.02-0.92
0.06-0.011000.00930.03-0.01-0.96
0.04-0.011050.00630.02-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot35506580951102K0
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

spot17.5305070901103K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 14K call contracts, 13K 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: EMBJ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk