Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 11:15 AM ET

KULR max pain

Spot (delayed)$2.65
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$3+13.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.85±32.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.0667 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$4largest call OI
Put wall$3largest put OI
IV30103.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $1.5

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 21$3+13.2%4d
Fri, Sep 18$3+13.2%32d
Fri, Oct 16$2.5-5.7%60d
Fri, Jan 15$3+13.2%151d
Fri, Jan 21$3.5+32.1%522d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot3123456$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 — 3 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot31246619619
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KULR 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

spot31246323323
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot123456201%87%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 99.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 1.51.523456+$1K$1K
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
1.0010.00180.000.00-0.00
0.98-0.001.50.08020.00-0.00-0.03
0.85-0.0020.29270.00-0.00-0.14
0.41-0.0130.43470.00-0.01-0.58
0.18-0.0040.26080.00-0.00-0.81
0.09-0.0050.14470.00-0.00-0.91
0.05-0.0060.08340.00-0.00-0.95

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

spot0.523.557104K0
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

spot0.523.557105K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 24K call contracts, 6K 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: KULR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk