Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 6:25 PM ET

HIMX max pain

Spot (delayed)$15.03
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$12-20.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.95±19.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.359K puts / 26K calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$7largest put OI
IV3074.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$193Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $11

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$14-6.9%5d
Fri, Sep 18$12-20.2%33d
Fri, Dec 18$15-0.2%124d
Fri, Jan 15$10-33.5%152d
Fri, Mar 19$9-40.1%215d
Fri, Jan 21$7-53.4%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot121815212835$38M$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 — 12 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1217131925313K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HIMX 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

spot121713192531314314
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot2915222835301%63%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 79.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 113915212733+$30K$30K
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
0.98-0.0080.01040.00-0.00-0.02
0.96-0.0190.01700.00-0.01-0.04
0.94-0.01100.02730.01-0.01-0.06
0.90-0.01110.04240.01-0.01-0.10
0.84-0.01120.06220.01-0.01-0.15
0.77-0.02130.08440.01-0.02-0.23
0.66-0.02140.10360.02-0.02-0.33
0.55-0.02150.11380.02-0.02-0.45
0.44-0.02160.11300.02-0.02-0.56
0.35-0.02170.10390.02-0.02-0.66
0.27-0.02180.09070.01-0.02-0.73
0.21-0.01190.07680.01-0.01-0.79
0.16-0.01200.06390.01-0.01-0.84
0.13-0.01210.05280.01-0.01-0.88
0.10-0.01220.04360.01-0.01-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 35 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot110162228346K0
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

spot171319253116K16K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 112K call contracts, 29K 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: HIMX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk