Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 3:44 AM ET

GILT max pain

Spot (delayed)$11.5
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$15+30.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.28±37.2% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI12.374K puts / 318 calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3057.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$35Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $7.5

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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$12.5+8.7%7d
Fri, Sep 18$12.5+8.7%35d
Fri, Dec 18$15+30.4%126d
Fri, Jan 15$10-13.0%154d
Fri, Mar 19$10-13.0%217d
Fri, Jan 21$5-56.5%525d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1551015202530$2M$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 — 15 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot155101520254K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GILT open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 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, Dec 18

spot155101520252020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot51015202530120%66%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 75.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 7.5510152025+$34K$34K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.0050.01380.01-0.00-0.05
0.89-0.007.50.03620.01-0.00-0.12
0.74-0.01100.07100.02-0.01-0.28
0.53-0.0112.50.08850.03-0.01-0.49
0.37-0.01150.07930.03-0.01-0.67
0.26-0.0117.50.06400.02-0.01-0.79
0.19-0.01200.05090.02-0.01-0.86
0.15-0.0122.50.04080.02-0.00-0.91
0.12-0.00250.03320.01-0.00-0.95
0.08-0.00300.02300.01-0.00-0.99

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

spot510152025352K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.5305K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 16K call contracts, 5K 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: GILT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk