Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 14, 7:08 PM ET

GRRR max pain

Spot (delayed)$13.01
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$14+7.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.03±7.9% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.372K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$12.5largest put OI
IV3087.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$3Kper 1% move

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
Fri, Sep 18$14+7.6%3d
Fri, Sep 25$15+15.3%10d
Fri, Oct 2$14+7.6%17d
Fri, Oct 9$16+23.0%24d
Fri, Oct 16$17.5+34.5%31d
Fri, Oct 23$14+7.6%38d
Fri, Oct 30$10-23.1%45d
Fri, Nov 20$15+15.3%66d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1481319243035$7M$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 — 14 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot147.511.51416.51922.51K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GRRR 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

spot147.511.51416.51922.5204204
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot91114161821371%77%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 93.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot7.511.51416.51922.5+$16K$16K
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
0.99-0.0190.01340.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.01100.03920.00-0.01-0.03
0.96-0.0210.50.06230.00-0.02-0.05
0.93-0.03110.09640.00-0.03-0.08
0.87-0.0411.50.14700.00-0.04-0.13
0.79-0.05120.21450.00-0.05-0.22
0.67-0.0612.50.28170.01-0.06-0.34
0.52-0.07130.31500.01-0.07-0.49
0.36-0.0613.50.29460.01-0.06-0.64
0.24-0.05140.23860.00-0.05-0.76
0.16-0.0414.50.17710.00-0.04-0.84
0.10-0.03150.12590.00-0.03-0.89
0.07-0.0215.50.08830.00-0.02-0.93
0.05-0.02160.06190.00-0.01-0.95
0.03-0.0116.50.04370.00-0.01-0.96

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 30 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot7.51315.51820.5252K0
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

spot2.591317213535K35K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 56K call contracts, 75K 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: GRRR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk