Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 12:39 AM ET

HR max pain

Spot (delayed)$19.15
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$20+4.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.65±8.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI9.0018 puts / 2 calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3025.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1Kper 1% move

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$20+4.4%3d
Fri, Sep 18$20+4.4%31d
Fri, Nov 20$17.5-8.6%94d
Fri, Feb 19$17.5-8.6%185d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot20151617181920$1M$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot201517.5201212
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HR 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

spot201517.52011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1517.520+$857$857
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
0.91-0.01150.04160.01-0.01-0.09
0.81-0.0117.50.12300.02-0.01-0.19
0.34-0.01200.22720.02-0.01-0.67

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1517.52022.5252490
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.530310310
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 534 call contracts, 175 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: HR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk