Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 3:06 AM ET

LAZ max pain

Spot (delayed)$41.1
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$45+9.5% vs spot
Put/Call OI0.361K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$45largest call OI
Put wall$35largest put OI
IV3043.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$109Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $45

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Sep 18$45+9.5%6d
Fri, Oct 16$43+4.6%34d
Fri, Nov 20$45+9.5%69d
Fri, Dec 18$44+7.1%97d
Fri, Mar 19$39-5.1%188d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot45203244566880$9M$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 — 45 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot4520355065802K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LAZ 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

spot45203550658055
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot303642485460204%42%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 61.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 452035506580+$183K$183K
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
1.00-0.00200.00030.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.00250.00130.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.01300.00540.00-0.01-0.01
0.94-0.03350.02600.01-0.03-0.06
0.68-0.08400.12420.02-0.08-0.33
0.10-0.03450.06430.01-0.03-0.91
0.02-0.01500.01130.00-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.00550.00310.00-0.00-1.00
0.00-0.00600.00120.000.00-1.00
0.00-0.00650.00050.000.00-1.00
0.00-0.00700.00030.000.00-1.00
0.000.00750.00020.00-1.00

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

spot35475065802K0
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

spot2037424760852K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 4K call contracts, 3K 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: LAZ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk