Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 3:50 AM ET

GSL max pain

Spot (delayed)$41.24
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$39-5.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.43±5.9% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.361K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$45largest call OI
Put wall$39largest put OI
IV3023.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$459Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $40

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · 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, Aug 21$42+1.8%8d
Fri, Sep 18$39-5.4%36d
Fri, Dec 18$38-7.9%127d
Fri, Mar 19$38-7.9%218d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot39253137434955$5M$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 — 39 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot39253135394347582582
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GSL 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

spot3925313539434722
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot25313743495591%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 40253135394347+$98K$98K
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
1.000.00340.00470.00-0.01-0.05
0.99-0.00350.01000.00-0.01-0.07
0.98-0.00360.02080.00-0.01-0.09
0.96-0.01370.04200.01-0.01-0.13
0.91-0.01380.07910.02-0.01-0.19
0.82-0.02390.12810.03-0.01-0.28
0.68-0.02400.16470.04-0.02-0.39
0.51-0.02410.16020.05-0.02-0.52
0.37-0.02420.13160.05-0.02-0.65
0.26-0.01430.10380.04-0.01-0.75
0.19-0.01440.08060.04-0.01-0.83
0.14-0.01450.06180.03-0.01-0.88
0.10-0.01460.04720.02-0.01-0.91
0.07-0.01470.03600.02-0.01-0.94
0.03-0.00500.01680.01-0.00-0.98

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

spot2533374145492K0
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

spot2532374247602K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 4K 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: GSL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk