Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 11:25 PM ET

LIF max pain

Spot (delayed)$51.77
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$50-3.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.73±13.0% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.61225 puts / 140 calls
Call wall$50largest call OI
Put wall$40largest put OI
IV3052.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2Kper 1% move

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$45-13.1%5d
Fri, Sep 18$50-3.4%33d
Fri, Oct 16$55+6.2%61d
Fri, Dec 18$50-3.4%124d
Fri, Jan 15$40-22.7%152d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot50354555657585$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 — 50 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot50354555657585118118
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LIF 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

spot503545556575854747
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot354555657585106%47%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 52.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot354555657585+$5K$5K
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
0.96-0.02350.00760.01-0.02-0.05
0.91-0.03400.01570.03-0.03-0.10
0.81-0.04450.03000.04-0.04-0.20
0.61-0.05500.04580.06-0.05-0.40
0.39-0.05550.04590.06-0.05-0.64
0.22-0.04600.03350.05-0.04-0.81
0.13-0.03650.02220.03-0.03-0.90
0.08-0.02700.01470.03-0.02-0.95
0.06-0.02750.01010.02-0.02-0.98
0.04-0.01800.00710.01-0.01-0.99
0.03-0.01850.00520.01-0.00-0.99

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

spot20405570852650
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

spot2035557595115544544
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 2K 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: LIF workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk