Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 13, 3:15 AM ET

FICO max pain

Spot (delayed)$985.47
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$1,000+1.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$52.7±5.3% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.743K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$1,300largest call OI
Put wall$800largest put OI
Net GEX−$789Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Sep 18$1,000+1.5%5d
Fri, Oct 16$1,100+11.6%33d
Fri, Nov 20$1,020+3.5%68d
Fri, Dec 18$1,120+13.7%96d
Fri, Jan 15$1,220+23.8%124d
Fri, Mar 19$1,060+7.6%187d
Fri, Apr 16$940-4.6%215d
Thu, Jun 17$1,100+11.6%277d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot10006909401190144016901940$239M$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 — 1000 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1000690840940108012401350354354
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)FICO 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

spot10006908409401080124013503232
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot6909401190144016901940152%45%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 48.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot690820920104011501290+$424K$424K
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
0.87-1.139100.00290.30-1.13-0.13
0.84-1.269200.00340.34-1.27-0.16
0.81-1.409300.00390.38-1.41-0.20
0.77-1.549400.00440.42-1.55-0.23
0.72-1.679500.00490.46-1.68-0.28
0.67-1.789600.00540.49-1.79-0.33
0.56-1.919800.00600.54-1.93-0.45
0.50-1.919900.00610.55-1.93-0.51
0.44-1.8810000.00610.54-1.90-0.57
0.32-1.7110200.00550.49-1.73-0.68
0.23-1.4510400.00460.42-1.46-0.78
0.16-1.1610600.00360.34-1.18-0.85
0.13-1.0310700.00310.29-1.04-0.88
0.11-0.9010800.00270.26-0.91-0.90
0.09-0.7910900.00230.23-0.79-0.92

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot46086010601230146020405640
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

spot460780940114013201990658658
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 11K 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: FICO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk