Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 12:50 PM ET

ETHA max pain

Spot (delayed)$14.19
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$15+5.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.73±12.2% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI0.422K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$16.5largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3042.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$38Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $11.5

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$15+5.7%5d
Fri, Aug 28$14.5+2.2%12d
Fri, Sep 4$14.5+2.2%19d
Fri, Sep 11$14.5+2.2%26d
Fri, Sep 18$15+5.7%33d
Fri, Sep 25$15+5.7%40d
Fri, Oct 2$14-1.3%47d
Fri, Oct 16$14-1.3%61d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot155913162024$3M$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 — 15 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot15512.51415.517243K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ETHA open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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 25

spot15512.51415.517243K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot12141719222487%40%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 45.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spotflip 11.511.51314.51617.5+$79K$79K
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 25

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.0050.00200.00-0.00-0.00
0.89-0.0111.50.07040.01-0.01-0.11
0.85-0.01120.09080.01-0.01-0.15
0.80-0.0112.50.11460.01-0.01-0.20
0.74-0.01130.13980.02-0.01-0.26
0.66-0.0113.50.16270.02-0.01-0.34
0.57-0.01140.17850.02-0.01-0.43
0.48-0.0114.50.18350.02-0.01-0.52
0.40-0.01150.17740.02-0.01-0.61
0.32-0.0115.50.16270.02-0.01-0.69
0.26-0.01160.14370.02-0.01-0.75
0.20-0.0116.50.12370.01-0.01-0.81
0.16-0.01170.10480.01-0.01-0.85
0.13-0.0117.50.08800.01-0.01-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot491315.5182267K0
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

spot11016243648155K155K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 987K call contracts, 967K 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: ETHA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk