Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 2:16 PM ET

GEN max pain

Spot (delayed)$27.74
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$25-9.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.45±8.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.152K puts / 13K calls
Call wall$30largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3034.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$762Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $25

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$27-2.7%4d
Fri, Sep 18$28+0.9%32d
Fri, Oct 16$25-9.9%60d
Fri, Dec 18$25-9.9%123d
Fri, Jan 15$26-6.3%151d
Fri, Dec 17$25-9.9%487d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot25131822273136$10M$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 — 25 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot251318222630345K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GEN 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

spot251318222630343636
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot151923283236104%24%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 27.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 25131822263034+$423K$423K
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
0.94-0.00210.02200.01-0.01-0.06
0.92-0.01220.02940.02-0.01-0.08
0.89-0.01230.03940.02-0.01-0.11
0.86-0.01240.05260.03-0.01-0.15
0.80-0.01250.06940.03-0.01-0.20
0.73-0.01260.08880.04-0.01-0.28
0.63-0.01270.10720.04-0.01-0.37
0.52-0.01280.11910.04-0.01-0.49
0.40-0.01290.11930.04-0.01-0.61
0.29-0.01300.10740.04-0.01-0.73
0.20-0.01310.08820.03-0.01-0.83
0.14-0.01320.06770.03-0.01-0.90
0.09-0.00330.04960.02-0.01-0.96
0.06-0.00340.03540.01-0.00-0.99
0.04-0.00350.02480.01-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot15212529337K0
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

spot10172227323711K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 32K call contracts, 6K 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: GEN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk