Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 29, 12:05 AM ET

HTHT max pain

Spot (delayed)$47.82
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$50+4.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.87±8.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.40241 puts / 599 calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3033.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$27Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $50

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, Sep 18$50+4.6%20d
Fri, Oct 16$35-26.8%48d
Fri, Dec 18$55+15.0%111d
Fri, Jan 15$40-16.4%139d
Fri, Mar 19$45-5.9%202d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot50253647586980$2M$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

spot50253545556575326326
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HTHT 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

spot5025354555657533
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot303846546270117%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 31.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 50253545556580+$18K$18K
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
1.00250.00010.000.000.00
1.00300.00040.000.00-0.00
1.000.00350.00020.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00400.00570.00-0.01-0.04
0.83-0.03450.08500.03-0.03-0.28
0.27-0.03500.09390.04-0.03-0.76
0.05-0.01550.02470.01-0.01-0.96
0.01-0.00600.00600.00-0.00-0.99
0.00-0.00650.00160.00-0.00-1.00
0.000.00700.00050.000.00-1.00
0.000.00750.00020.00-1.00
0.00800.0001-1.00

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

spot2535455565756230
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

spot2030456075626626
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 1K 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: HTHT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk