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

KEY max pain

Spot (delayed)$23.31
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$22-5.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.8±7.7% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.582K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$26largest call OI
Put wall$21largest put OI
IV3022.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$109Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $23

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — 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

spot22131619232629$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 — 22 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot22131720232629632632
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KEY open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot221317202326292424
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot13161923262985%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 23131720232629+$51K$51K
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.00160.00660.00-0.00-0.02
0.99-0.00170.01200.00-0.00-0.03
0.98-0.00180.02180.01-0.00-0.04
0.95-0.00190.03900.01-0.00-0.07
0.92-0.00200.06690.01-0.00-0.11
0.84-0.01210.10690.02-0.01-0.17
0.73-0.01220.15080.03-0.01-0.28
0.56-0.01230.18080.04-0.01-0.45
0.38-0.01240.17640.04-0.01-0.63
0.24-0.01250.13990.03-0.01-0.79
0.14-0.00260.09700.02-0.00-0.89
0.08-0.00270.06360.01-0.00-0.94
0.05-0.00280.04110.01-0.00-0.97
0.03-0.00290.02680.01-0.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 16 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