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

IWM max pain

Spot (delayed)$288.89
Max pain · Thu, Sep 17$295+2.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.28±1.8% by Thu, Sep 17
Put/Call OI2.9412K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$295largest call OI
Put wall$284largest put OI
IV3017.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$19.1Mper 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

spot295240254268282296310$53M$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 — 295 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spot2952402652742832923012K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IWM open contracts per strike for Thu, Sep 17.

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

spot245266275284293302+865865
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: 283 +865 · 282 +858 · 284 +608 · 286 +552

Volume by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spot2952402652742832923013K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spot24025426828229631052%10%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 17.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spot240265274283292301+$6.5M$6.5M
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 · Thu, Sep 17

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.85-0.172820.03490.08-0.18-0.20
0.82-0.192830.04050.09-0.19-0.23
0.79-0.212840.04640.10-0.21-0.27
0.74-0.232850.05260.12-0.22-0.32
0.69-0.242860.05840.12-0.22-0.36
0.64-0.252870.06350.13-0.23-0.42
0.57-0.262880.06750.14-0.23-0.48
0.51-0.252890.06950.14-0.22-0.54
0.43-0.242900.06920.14-0.21-0.60
0.37-0.222910.06640.14-0.20-0.66
0.30-0.202920.06150.13-0.18-0.72
0.24-0.172930.05500.12-0.15-0.78
0.19-0.142940.04760.10-0.13-0.83
0.14-0.112950.03970.09-0.10-0.87
0.10-0.092960.03200.07-0.08-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 52 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