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

IWM max pain

Spot (delayed)$288.89
Max pain · Mon, Sep 21$286-1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.34±2.2% by Mon, Sep 21
Put/Call OI1.219K puts / 8K calls
Call wall$310largest call OI
Put wall$280largest put OI
IV3017.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$3.4Mper 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

spot286225244263282301320$47M$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 — 286 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Mon, Sep 21

spot2862252742812872943035K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IWM open contracts per strike for Mon, Sep 21.

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

spot225274281287294301+1K1K
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: 294 +1K · 300 +538 · 225 +486 · 295 +406

Volume by strike · Mon, Sep 21

spot2862252742812872943032K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Mon, Sep 21

spot22524426328230132053%14%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 16.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Mon, Sep 21

spot225274281287294303+$12.4M$12.4M
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 · Mon, Sep 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.78-0.17282.50.03820.14-0.15-0.25
0.77-0.172830.03990.14-0.15-0.27
0.73-0.182840.04340.16-0.16-0.30
0.69-0.182850.04650.16-0.16-0.34
0.65-0.182860.04940.18-0.17-0.38
0.60-0.182870.05160.18-0.17-0.42
0.55-0.182880.05320.19-0.17-0.47
0.49-0.172890.05380.19-0.17-0.52
0.44-0.162900.05360.19-0.16-0.58
0.39-0.152910.05240.18-0.15-0.63
0.33-0.142920.05010.17-0.14-0.69
0.28-0.132930.04690.16-0.13-0.74
0.23-0.112940.04300.15-0.12-0.79
0.19-0.102950.03850.13-0.10-0.83
0.15-0.082960.03360.12-0.08-0.87

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 39 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