Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 3:02 PM ET

KEEL max pain

Spot (delayed)$3.52
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$5+42.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.86±24.5% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI0.991K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$5largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV30100.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $5

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

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 14$3.5-0.4%1d
Fri, Aug 21$4+13.8%8d
Fri, Aug 28$3.5-0.4%15d
Fri, Sep 4$3.5-0.4%22d
Fri, Sep 11$3-14.7%29d
Fri, Sep 18$3-14.7%36d
Fri, Sep 25$5+42.2%43d
Fri, Nov 20$4.5+28.0%99d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot5123568$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 — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot50.523.5571K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KEEL open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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, Sep 25

spot50.523.5577474
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot234568204%88%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 89.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spotflip 50.523.557.5+$2K$2K
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, Sep 25

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.990.50.00670.00-0.00-0.01
0.980.0010.01960.00-0.00-0.02
0.95-0.001.50.04380.00-0.00-0.05
0.92-0.0020.08690.00-0.00-0.09
0.84-0.002.50.15560.00-0.00-0.16
0.73-0.0130.24110.00-0.01-0.27
0.58-0.013.50.30300.01-0.01-0.42
0.44-0.0140.30880.01-0.01-0.56
0.32-0.014.50.27520.00-0.01-0.68
0.24-0.0150.23040.00-0.00-0.77
0.18-0.005.50.18860.00-0.00-0.83
0.14-0.0060.15390.00-0.00-0.87
0.09-0.0070.10410.00-0.00-0.92
0.07-0.007.50.08660.000.00-0.94

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

spot0.52.54.56.58.51244K0
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

spot0.535.5810.5118K118K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 900K call contracts, 189K 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: KEEL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk