Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 3:44 AM ET

IWM max pain

Spot (delayed)$288.89
Max pain · Wed, Sep 16$297+2.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.53±1.6% by Wed, Sep 16
Put/Call OI2.0521K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$300largest call OI
Put wall$266largest put OI
IV3017.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$37.9Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Mon, Sep 14$290+0.4%3d
Tue, Sep 15$295+2.1%4d
Wed, Sep 16$297+2.8%5d
Thu, Sep 17$295+2.1%6d
Fri, Sep 18$290+0.4%7d
Mon, Sep 21$286-1.0%10d
Tue, Sep 22$282-2.4%11d
Wed, Sep 23$286-1.0%12d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot297240258276294312330$93M$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 — 297 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot2972402662762852953073K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IWM open contracts per strike for Wed, Sep 16.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-102026-09-11

spot245267276284293302+3K3K
Net contracts opened (up, green) or closed (down, red) per strike since the previous snapshot — where the walls are building and where they’re unwinding. Biggest moves: 266 +3K · 300 +2K · 272 +2K · 301 +823

Volume by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot2972402662762852953072K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot24025827629431233052%12%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 15.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot240266276285295307+$12.7M$12.7M
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 · Wed, Sep 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.89-0.142820.03300.07-0.17-0.17
0.86-0.172830.03970.07-0.19-0.21
0.82-0.192840.04730.09-0.20-0.25
0.78-0.212850.05580.10-0.21-0.29
0.72-0.232860.06440.11-0.23-0.35
0.66-0.252870.07260.12-0.23-0.41
0.59-0.262880.07930.13-0.23-0.48
0.51-0.262890.08300.13-0.22-0.55
0.43-0.242900.08240.13-0.21-0.63
0.35-0.222910.07760.12-0.19-0.70
0.27-0.192920.06960.11-0.16-0.76
0.21-0.162930.05970.10-0.14-0.82
0.15-0.122940.04890.08-0.11-0.86
0.11-0.092950.03830.06-0.08-0.90
0.07-0.072960.02880.05-0.06-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 57 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot23028028829630331528K0
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.

Max pain history — nearest expiry vs price

07-2808-0508-1308-2108-3109-08304.69287.44
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot100190255283296315451K451K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3.0M call contracts, 7.4M 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: IWM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk