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

HIMX max pain

Spot (delayed)$15.03
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$10-33.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.23±41.4% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.178K puts / 46K calls
Call wall$10largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3074.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$325Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $2

Event risk before this expiration: 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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — 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

spot101815212835$76M$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot10171319253113K13K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HIMX open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot1017131925314545
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot2915222835164%77%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 81.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 21713192531+$71K$71K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.91-0.0080.01740.01-0.00-0.08
0.88-0.0190.02270.02-0.01-0.11
0.84-0.01100.02820.02-0.01-0.15
0.80-0.01110.03350.03-0.01-0.19
0.76-0.01120.03840.03-0.01-0.24
0.71-0.01130.04260.03-0.01-0.29
0.66-0.01140.04580.04-0.01-0.34
0.61-0.01150.04810.04-0.01-0.39
0.56-0.01160.04940.04-0.01-0.43
0.52-0.01170.05000.04-0.01-0.48
0.47-0.01180.04980.04-0.01-0.52
0.44-0.01190.04920.04-0.01-0.56
0.40-0.01200.04800.04-0.01-0.60
0.37-0.01210.04660.04-0.01-0.64
0.34-0.01220.04500.04-0.01-0.67

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