Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 11:29 PM ET

FXC max pain

Spot (delayed)$70.07
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$69-1.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.8±4.0% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.53430 puts / 808 calls
Call wall$80largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV306.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$142Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $70

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$70-0.1%8d
Fri, Sep 18$69-1.5%36d
Fri, Dec 18$66-5.8%127d
Fri, Mar 19$71+1.3%218d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot69606468727680$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 — 69 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot69606468727680404404
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)FXC 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

spot6960646872768011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot60646872768044%4%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 15.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 70606468727680+$92K$92K
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
0.95-0.01630.02260.03-0.01-0.05
0.94-0.01640.02870.03-0.01-0.06
0.92-0.01650.03740.03-0.01-0.07
0.91-0.01660.05050.04-0.01-0.09
0.88-0.01670.07180.05-0.01-0.12
0.84-0.01680.10990.06-0.01-0.16
0.75-0.01690.18600.07-0.01-0.25
0.54-0.01700.30390.09-0.01-0.46
0.29-0.01710.22340.08-0.01-0.72
0.18-0.01720.13200.06-0.01-0.83
0.13-0.01730.08600.05-0.01-0.88
0.10-0.01740.06070.04-0.01-0.91
0.08-0.01750.04530.04-0.01-0.92
0.07-0.01760.03520.03-0.01-0.94
0.06-0.01770.02810.03-0.01-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 21 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot6064687276807060
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

spot596367717579706706
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 710 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: FXC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk