Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 3:40 AM ET

ETH max pain

Spot (delayed)$17.93
Max pain · Fri, Sep 11$17-5.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.6±8.9% by Fri, Sep 11
Put/Call OI0.227 puts / 32 calls
Call wall$17.5largest call OI
Put wall$17largest put OI
IV3038.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $17

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$17-5.2%5d
Fri, Aug 28$18+0.4%12d
Fri, Sep 4$17-5.2%19d
Fri, Sep 11$17-5.2%26d
Fri, Sep 18$17-5.2%33d
Fri, Sep 25$13-27.5%40d
Fri, Oct 16$20+11.5%61d
Fri, Jan 15$15-16.3%152d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot17161719202123$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 — 17 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot171617.518.519.522.566
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ETH open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 11.

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 11

spot171617.518.519.522.511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot16171920212361%37%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 40.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spotflip 171617.518.519.522.5+$378$378
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 11

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.81-0.01160.10410.01-0.01-0.20
0.70-0.01170.16260.02-0.01-0.30
0.62-0.0117.50.19580.02-0.01-0.38
0.52-0.01180.21540.02-0.01-0.49
0.41-0.0118.50.20780.02-0.01-0.59
0.33-0.01190.18230.02-0.01-0.68
0.27-0.0119.50.15390.02-0.01-0.74
0.19-0.0120.50.10920.01-0.01-0.82
0.11-0.0122.50.06190.01-0.01-0.89

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

spot9161820222240
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

spot112.5192740553K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 24K call contracts, 9K 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: ETH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk