Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 5, 11:13 PM ET

GS max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,060
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$1,000-5.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$131.93±12.4% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.0810K puts / 9K calls
Call wall$1,600largest call OI
Put wall$800largest put OI
IV3033.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.3Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $1,340

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 · 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 7$1,030-2.9%2d
Fri, Aug 14$1,050-1.0%9d
Fri, Aug 21$1,000-5.7%16d
Fri, Aug 28$1,055-0.5%23d
Fri, Sep 4$1,035-2.4%30d
Fri, Sep 11$1,055-0.5%37d
Fri, Sep 18$955-9.9%44d
Fri, Oct 16$1,000-5.7%72d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot10006008001000120014001600$372M$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 — 1000 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot100060083092098010801280785785
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GS 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

spot1000600830920980108012806363
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot600800100012001400160062%31%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 134060083092098010801280+$1.2M$1.2M
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
0.69-0.409950.00211.65-0.41-0.31
0.68-0.4110000.00211.68-0.42-0.32
0.67-0.4110050.00221.70-0.43-0.33
0.66-0.4210100.00221.72-0.43-0.34
0.65-0.4210150.00221.74-0.44-0.36
0.64-0.4310200.00221.76-0.44-0.37
0.59-0.4410400.00231.82-0.46-0.42
0.54-0.4510600.00241.86-0.46-0.47
0.49-0.4510800.00241.87-0.46-0.51
0.45-0.4511000.00241.85-0.46-0.56
0.40-0.4411200.00241.82-0.45-0.61
0.36-0.4211400.00231.75-0.43-0.65
0.32-0.4011600.00221.68-0.40-0.70
0.28-0.3811800.00211.58-0.38-0.74
0.24-0.3512000.00191.48-0.35-0.77

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

spot54080092010051082.511554K0
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

spot4507709059901100132012K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 250K call contracts, 218K 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: GS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk