Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 9:10 PM ET

KEY max pain

Spot (delayed)$23.31
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$22-5.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.3±5.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.2916K puts / 13K calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3022.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$620Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $8

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 21$23-1.3%4d
Fri, Sep 18$22-5.6%32d
Fri, Oct 16$22-5.6%60d
Fri, Nov 20$23-1.3%95d
Fri, Dec 18$21-9.9%123d
Fri, Jan 15$20-14.2%151d
Fri, Mar 19$20-14.2%214d
Thu, Jun 17$22-5.6%304d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot223916222935$22M$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 — 22 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot22313182226304K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KEY open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

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 18

spot2231318222630144144
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot15192327313583%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 8816202428+$333K$333K
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 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.00160.00560.00-0.00-0.02
0.99-0.00170.00900.00-0.00-0.02
0.98-0.00180.01520.00-0.00-0.03
0.97-0.00190.02660.00-0.00-0.05
0.95-0.00200.04920.01-0.01-0.08
0.91-0.01210.09480.01-0.01-0.14
0.80-0.01220.18110.02-0.01-0.25
0.59-0.01230.27340.03-0.01-0.45
0.33-0.01240.23590.03-0.01-0.69
0.17-0.01250.14540.02-0.01-0.84
0.10-0.01260.08650.01-0.01-0.91
0.06-0.00270.05340.01-0.00-0.95
0.04-0.00280.03440.01-0.00-0.97
0.03-0.00290.02310.00-0.00-0.98
0.02-0.00300.01600.00-0.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 22 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot313182226308K0
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

spot3131823283523K23K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 72K call contracts, 57K 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: KEY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk