Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 11:27 PM ET

LAMR max pain

Spot (delayed)$155.47
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$145-6.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$10.75±6.9% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.65241 puts / 371 calls
Call wall$170largest call OI
Put wall$130largest put OI
IV3020.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$111Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $165

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$155-0.3%4d
Fri, Sep 18$155-0.3%32d
Fri, Oct 16$145-6.7%60d
Fri, Jan 15$120-22.8%151d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot14580102124146168190$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 — 145 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot14580110130150170190153153
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LAMR 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

spot1458011013015017019011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot10011813615417219065%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 20.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 16580110130150170190+$67K$67K
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
0.95-0.031200.00420.07-0.03-0.07
0.94-0.031250.00550.07-0.03-0.08
0.92-0.031300.00740.09-0.03-0.10
0.90-0.031350.01010.11-0.03-0.13
0.86-0.041400.01440.14-0.04-0.17
0.79-0.041450.02040.18-0.04-0.24
0.68-0.041500.02690.23-0.04-0.35
0.54-0.051550.03090.25-0.04-0.49
0.38-0.041600.03040.24-0.04-0.64
0.24-0.031650.02530.20-0.03-0.78
0.15-0.021700.01810.15-0.02-0.88
0.09-0.021750.01240.11-0.02-0.92
0.07-0.011800.00890.09-0.01-0.95
0.06-0.011850.00680.07-0.01-0.96
0.05-0.011900.00540.06-0.01-0.96

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 21 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1001301451601751905830
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

spot80105130155180210590590
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 1K 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: LAMR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk