Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 11:19 PM ET

IMMP max pain

Spot (delayed)$0.4
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$1+150.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.35±87.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.6264 puts / 104 calls
Call wall$1largest call OI
Put wall$1largest put OI
IV3059.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$7per 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$1.5+275.0%8d
Fri, Sep 18$1+150.0%36d
Fri, Oct 16$0.5+25.0%64d
Fri, Jan 15$0.5+25.0%155d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1123568$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 — 1 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot10.51.52.57.54343
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IMMP 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

spot10.51.52.57.511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Greeks by strike · Fri, Sep 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.240.000.53.22590.000.00-0.79
0.040.0010.48880.000.00-0.99
0.020.001.50.21720.000.00-1.00
0.010.0020.12850.00-1.00
0.010.002.50.08690.00-1.00
0.0050.02670.00-1.00
0.007.50.01340.00-1.00

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

spot0.51.52.57.51K0
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

spot0.51.52.57.51K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 4K call contracts, 226 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: IMMP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk