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

KEY max pain

Spot (delayed)$23.31
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$20-14.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.28±14.0% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI1.0418K puts / 17K calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3022.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$416Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $22

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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — 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

spot203916222935$24M$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot203101725357K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KEY open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot203101725352323
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot81319243035100%24%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 26.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 2281317222735+$328K$328K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.0050.00070.000.00-0.00
1.0080.00010.00-0.00-0.01
1.00100.00050.00-0.00-0.01
0.990.00130.00460.00-0.00-0.02
0.98-0.00150.01350.01-0.00-0.04
0.94-0.00170.02750.02-0.00-0.07
0.82-0.00200.06210.04-0.00-0.19
0.67-0.01220.09480.05-0.01-0.35
0.36-0.00250.10160.06-0.00-0.65
0.20-0.00270.07570.04-0.00-0.81
0.08-0.00300.03840.02-0.00-0.94
0.02-0.00350.01080.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 13 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