Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 10:22 PM ET

ICFI max pain

Spot (delayed)$88
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$75-14.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.1±5.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.4528 puts / 62 calls
Call wall$80largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3033.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$9Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $80

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$75-14.8%3d
Fri, Sep 18$75-14.8%31d
Fri, Dec 18$50-43.2%122d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot7565758595105115$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 — 75 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot756575851001153939
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ICFI 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

spot7565758510011511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot65758595105115115%33%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 30.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 80657585100115+$7K$7K
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
0.92-0.05650.00720.04-0.05-0.08
0.89-0.05700.01050.05-0.05-0.11
0.85-0.06750.01570.06-0.06-0.15
0.78-0.06800.02450.08-0.06-0.22
0.65-0.06850.03870.10-0.06-0.35
0.43-0.05900.04750.10-0.05-0.57
0.17-0.041000.02310.07-0.04-0.84
0.12-0.041050.01630.05-0.04-0.88
0.08-0.041150.00950.04-0.03-0.92

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

spot40658090105400
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

spot355575951151354040
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 71 call contracts, 32 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: ICFI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk