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

LBRT max pain

Spot (delayed)$21.98
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$20-9.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.78±12.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.714K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$18largest put OI
IV3052.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$54Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $20

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$18-18.1%3d
Fri, Sep 18$20-9.0%31d
Fri, Dec 18$20-9.0%122d
Fri, Jan 15$15-31.8%150d
Fri, Mar 19$20-9.0%213d
Fri, Jan 21$20-9.0%521d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot2081625334250$14M$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, Sep 18

spot20817232935453K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LBRT 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

spot20817232935452K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot122027354250155%40%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 53.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 2081723293545+$86K$86K
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
0.95-0.01150.01850.01-0.01-0.05
0.94-0.01160.02570.01-0.01-0.07
0.91-0.01170.03580.01-0.01-0.09
0.88-0.01180.04950.01-0.01-0.13
0.82-0.02190.06730.02-0.02-0.18
0.75-0.02200.08790.02-0.02-0.26
0.65-0.02210.10670.02-0.02-0.35
0.54-0.02220.11690.03-0.02-0.47
0.42-0.02230.11480.03-0.02-0.58
0.33-0.02240.10330.02-0.02-0.68
0.25-0.02250.08780.02-0.02-0.76
0.19-0.01260.07240.02-0.01-0.82
0.14-0.01270.05880.01-0.01-0.86
0.11-0.01280.04750.01-0.01-0.90
0.09-0.01290.03830.01-0.01-0.92

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 32 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1419242934395K0
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

spot310172431388K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 43K call contracts, 27K 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: LBRT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk