Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 7, 11:23 PM ET

IVR max pain

Spot (delayed)$7.48
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$8+7.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.68±9.0% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.44832 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$8largest call OI
Put wall$8largest put OI
IV3023.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$13Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $8

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$8+7.0%6d
Fri, Sep 18$7-6.4%34d
Fri, Oct 16$8+7.0%62d
Fri, Nov 20$7-6.4%97d
Fri, Jan 15$8+7.0%153d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8147101316$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 — 8 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot81471015833833
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IVR open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot8147101511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot67810111286%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 81357911+$11K$11K
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.0010.00330.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0020.00720.00-0.00-0.02
0.99-0.0030.01340.00-0.00-0.03
0.99-0.0040.02610.00-0.00-0.04
0.98-0.0050.06040.00-0.00-0.06
0.95-0.0060.17610.00-0.00-0.12
0.76-0.0070.58750.01-0.00-0.31
0.21-0.0080.39770.01-0.00-0.78
0.07-0.0090.13630.01-0.00-0.90
0.03-0.00100.06140.00-0.00-0.94
0.020.00110.03250.000.00-0.95
0.010.00120.01890.000.00-0.96
0.000.00150.00520.000.00-0.97
0.000.00160.00360.000.00-0.97

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

spot5791113152K0
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

spot1471013164K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7K call contracts, 2K 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: IVR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk