Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 10:21 AM ET

HRB max pain

Spot (delayed)$53.92
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$50-7.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.23±9.7% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.69550 puts / 802 calls
Call wall$50largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3036.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$51Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $35

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$40-25.8%6d
Fri, Sep 18$50-7.3%34d
Fri, Oct 16$45-16.5%62d
Fri, Nov 20$35-35.1%97d
Fri, Jan 15$40-25.8%153d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot50202836445260$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 — 50 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot502025354555369369
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HRB 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

spot502025354555286286
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot35404550556088%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 36.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 3530405060+$33K$33K
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
1.00-0.0022.50.00040.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.00250.00070.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.00300.00010.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00350.00290.00-0.01-0.02
0.98-0.01400.00790.01-0.01-0.04
0.93-0.02450.02120.02-0.02-0.10
0.77-0.03500.05160.05-0.03-0.26
0.45-0.04550.06790.07-0.03-0.56
0.20-0.03600.04290.05-0.02-0.79

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 9 strikes around the money — all 10 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot20304560752K0
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

spot1522.53550653K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 11K call contracts, 11K 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: HRB workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk