Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 6:53 PM ET

FN max pain

Spot (delayed)$570.77
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$600+5.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$143.2±25.1% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.442K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$600largest call OI
Put wall$480largest put OI
IV3084.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$135Kper 1% move

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$530-7.1%6d
Fri, Sep 18$510-10.6%34d
Fri, Oct 16$600+5.1%62d
Fri, Nov 20$540-5.4%97d
Fri, Dec 18$720+26.1%125d
Fri, Jan 15$450-21.2%153d
Fri, Apr 16$500-12.4%244d
Fri, Jul 16$300-47.4%335d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot6002404045687328961060$40M$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 — 600 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot600240380470560660880310310
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)FN 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

spot60024038047056066088066
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot2404045687328961060133%75%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 75.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot240380470560680900+$171K$171K
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
0.73-0.495000.00180.79-0.49-0.28
0.71-0.505100.00190.82-0.51-0.30
0.69-0.525200.00190.85-0.52-0.32
0.67-0.535300.00200.87-0.54-0.34
0.64-0.545400.00200.89-0.55-0.36
0.62-0.555500.00210.91-0.56-0.38
0.60-0.565600.00210.92-0.57-0.41
0.58-0.575700.00220.93-0.57-0.43
0.56-0.575800.00220.94-0.58-0.45
0.54-0.575900.00220.94-0.58-0.47
0.52-0.586000.00220.95-0.59-0.49
0.49-0.586100.00220.95-0.59-0.51
0.47-0.586200.00220.95-0.59-0.53
0.46-0.576300.00220.94-0.58-0.55
0.43-0.576400.00220.94-0.58-0.57

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 52 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2503904905907008004200
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

spot210340470600730860591591
■ 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: FN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk