Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 4:40 PM ET

KNX max pain

Spot (delayed)$72.89
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$70-4.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.63±7.7% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.241K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$80largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3033.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$939Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $70

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$65-10.8%4d
Fri, Sep 18$70-4.0%32d
Fri, Nov 20$75+2.9%95d
Fri, Dec 18$50-31.4%123d
Fri, Jan 15$60-17.7%151d
Fri, Feb 19$75+2.9%186d
Fri, Jan 21$55-24.5%522d
Fri, Dec 15$105+44.1%851d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot70606672788490$7M$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 — 70 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot706065707580902K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KNX 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

spot706065707580901818
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot60667278849039%31%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 32.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 70606570758090+$403K$403K
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
0.96-0.01600.01060.02-0.01-0.04
0.93-0.0262.50.01770.03-0.02-0.08
0.87-0.03650.02760.04-0.03-0.13
0.79-0.0367.50.03900.06-0.03-0.21
0.68-0.04700.04940.08-0.04-0.33
0.54-0.0472.50.05500.09-0.04-0.46
0.41-0.04750.05380.08-0.04-0.60
0.29-0.0477.50.04690.07-0.04-0.72
0.20-0.03800.03730.06-0.03-0.81
0.13-0.0382.50.02780.05-0.02-0.88
0.04-0.01900.00970.02-0.01-0.97

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

spot305062.57587.51103K0
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

spot20355065801005K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 23K call contracts, 17K 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: KNX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk