Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 12:30 PM ET

LI max pain

Spot (delayed)$12.22
Max pain · Fri, Sep 4$12-1.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.23±10.1% by Fri, Sep 4
Put/Call OI0.55227 puts / 416 calls
Call wall$15largest call OI
Put wall$12.5largest put OI
IV3050.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$824per 1% move · flip ≈ $11.5

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$12-1.8%6d
Fri, Aug 28$12.5+2.3%13d
Fri, Sep 4$12-1.8%20d
Fri, Sep 11$12.5+2.3%27d
Fri, Sep 18$15+22.7%34d
Fri, Sep 25$13+6.4%41d
Fri, Oct 2$12-1.8%48d
Fri, Dec 18$13+6.4%125d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot127912141719$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 — 12 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot1279111315197878
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LI open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 4.

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 4

spot1279111315192121
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot81012141719179%44%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 50.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spotflip 11.57911131519+$2K$2K
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 4

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.94-0.018.50.03780.00-0.01-0.06
0.93-0.0190.04850.00-0.01-0.07
0.91-0.019.50.06310.01-0.01-0.09
0.89-0.01100.08410.01-0.01-0.11
0.86-0.0110.50.11530.01-0.01-0.14
0.81-0.01110.15990.01-0.01-0.20
0.72-0.0111.50.20960.01-0.01-0.28
0.60-0.01120.24370.01-0.01-0.40
0.47-0.0112.50.25010.01-0.01-0.53
0.36-0.01130.23190.01-0.01-0.64
0.27-0.0113.50.19880.01-0.01-0.74
0.19-0.01140.16110.01-0.01-0.81
0.14-0.0114.50.12710.01-0.01-0.86
0.11-0.01150.10060.01-0.01-0.90
0.09-0.0115.50.08110.01-0.01-0.92

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

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot6911.51416.5205K0
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

spot391317233727K27K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 112K call contracts, 93K 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: LI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk