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

IWM max pain

Spot (delayed)$288.89
Max pain · Wed, Sep 23$286-1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.1±2.5% by Wed, Sep 23
Put/Call OI4.0811K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$310largest call OI
Put wall$270largest put OI
IV3017.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$10.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $263

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

spot286240254268282296310$39M$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 · Wed, Sep 23

spot2862402692772842933026K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IWM open contracts per strike for Wed, Sep 23.

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 · Wed, Sep 23

spot2862402692772842933021K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Sep 23

spot24025426828229631042%11%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 16.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Sep 23

spotflip 263240269277284293302+$5.1M$5.1M
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 23

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.75-0.16282.50.03550.17-0.14-0.27
0.74-0.162830.03670.17-0.14-0.28
0.70-0.162840.03900.18-0.15-0.32
0.67-0.162850.04110.19-0.15-0.35
0.63-0.162860.04300.20-0.15-0.39
0.58-0.162870.04460.20-0.16-0.43
0.54-0.162880.04580.21-0.16-0.47
0.49-0.152890.04650.21-0.15-0.52
0.45-0.152900.04660.21-0.15-0.56
0.40-0.142910.04620.20-0.14-0.61
0.35-0.132920.04500.20-0.14-0.66
0.31-0.122930.04310.18-0.13-0.71
0.26-0.112940.04050.17-0.12-0.76
0.22-0.102950.03740.16-0.10-0.80
0.18-0.092960.03380.14-0.09-0.84

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 49 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