Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 2:40 AM ET

FIP max pain

Spot (delayed)$4.51
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$5+10.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.78±17.2% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI5.361K puts / 243 calls
Call wall$4largest call OI
Put wall$4largest put OI
IV3058.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$5Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $3

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, Aug 21$4-11.3%4d
Fri, Sep 18$3-33.5%32d
Fri, Oct 16$5+10.9%60d
Fri, Dec 18$4-11.3%123d
Fri, Jan 15$7+55.2%151d
Fri, Jan 21$4-11.3%522d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot513581012$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 — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot5146812466466
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)FIP 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

spot51468125656
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot345789159%52%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 61.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 33579+$2K$2K
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
1.00-0.0010.00960.00-0.00-0.01
0.92-0.0030.10240.00-0.00-0.10
0.75-0.0040.28570.01-0.00-0.27
0.42-0.0050.35410.01-0.00-0.62
0.23-0.0060.22720.01-0.00-0.81
0.16-0.0070.15160.00-0.00-0.89
0.11-0.0080.10950.00-0.00-0.93
0.09-0.0090.08370.00-0.00-0.95
0.05-0.00120.04610.00-0.00-0.98

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

spot14685K0
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

spot13579115K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 8K 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: FIP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk