Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 3:44 AM ET

GOOGL max pain

Spot (delayed)$338.39
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$332.5-1.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$10.4±3.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.60247K puts / 412K calls
Call wall$400largest call OI
Put wall$310largest put OI
IV3028.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$67.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $350
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 28usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Mon, Sep 14$330-2.5%3d
Wed, Sep 16$335-1.0%5d
Fri, Sep 18$332.5-1.7%7d
Mon, Sep 21$330-2.5%10d
Wed, Sep 23$330-2.5%12d
Fri, Sep 25$340+0.5%14d
Fri, Oct 2$335-1.0%21d
Fri, Oct 9$335-1.0%28d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot332.5150280410540670800$15.4B$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 — 332.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot332.5150245300342.538545563K63K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GOOGL open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-102026-09-11

spot190275320350390450+39K39K
Net contracts opened (up, green) or closed (down, red) per strike since the previous snapshot — where the walls are building and where they’re unwinding. Biggest moves: 400 +39K · 337.5 +5K · 342.5 +4K · 395 3K

Volume by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot332.5150245300342.538545517K17K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot230284338392446500101%26%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 26.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 350230280320350385440+$36.1M$36.1M
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
0.98-0.053050.00260.02-0.05-0.02
0.97-0.063100.00390.03-0.06-0.03
0.96-0.083150.00620.04-0.08-0.04
0.93-0.133200.01040.07-0.13-0.07
0.86-0.203250.01680.10-0.20-0.14
0.76-0.283300.02440.15-0.28-0.24
0.63-0.353350.03040.18-0.35-0.38
0.55-0.36337.50.03180.19-0.37-0.46
0.47-0.363400.03200.19-0.37-0.54
0.39-0.35342.50.03080.18-0.35-0.62
0.32-0.323450.02850.17-0.33-0.69
0.20-0.253500.02190.13-0.26-0.81
0.12-0.183550.01510.10-0.18-0.89
0.07-0.133600.00990.07-0.13-0.94
0.06-0.11362.50.00800.06-0.10-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot15025031035540555563K0
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.

Max pain history — nearest expiry vs price

07-2808-0508-1308-2108-3109-08380.31325.00
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot5200275345415530161K161K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2.2M call contracts, 1.4M 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: GOOGL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk