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

EMBJ max pain

Spot (delayed)$75.27
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$50-33.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$14.95±19.9% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.843K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$40largest call OI
Put wall$30largest put OI
IV3034.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$146Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $30

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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — 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

spot5018385979100120$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 — 50 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot5017.5305070901102K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)EMBJ open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot5017.53050709011022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot18385979100120148%36%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 40.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 3017.530507090110+$32K$32K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.98400.00210.03-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.00450.00340.04-0.01-0.04
0.94-0.01500.00540.06-0.01-0.07
0.90-0.01550.00810.08-0.01-0.10
0.85-0.01600.01150.11-0.02-0.16
0.77-0.02650.01530.14-0.02-0.23
0.68-0.02700.01870.17-0.02-0.32
0.58-0.02750.02090.18-0.03-0.43
0.48-0.03800.02150.19-0.03-0.54
0.38-0.02850.02050.18-0.02-0.64
0.30-0.02900.01850.16-0.02-0.72
0.24-0.02950.01600.14-0.02-0.80
0.19-0.021000.01360.13-0.01-0.85
0.15-0.021050.01140.11-0.01-0.89
0.12-0.011100.00950.09-0.01-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 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