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

LIF max pain

Spot (delayed)$51.77
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$50-3.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$15.7±30.3% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.35348 puts / 985 calls
Call wall$115largest call OI
Put wall$40largest put OI
IV3052.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$10Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $95

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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — 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

spot502543617997115$2M$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, Dec 18

spot5025456585105453453
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LIF open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 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, Dec 18

spot50254565851052020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot254361799711588%56%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 66.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 9525456585105+$6K$6K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.01250.00350.03-0.01-0.04
0.93-0.01300.00610.04-0.01-0.08
0.88-0.02350.00950.06-0.02-0.13
0.81-0.02400.01340.08-0.02-0.20
0.72-0.03450.01690.10-0.03-0.29
0.62-0.03500.01940.12-0.03-0.39
0.52-0.03550.02050.12-0.03-0.49
0.43-0.03600.02030.12-0.03-0.58
0.35-0.03650.01900.11-0.03-0.67
0.29-0.03700.01730.10-0.03-0.74
0.23-0.02750.01530.09-0.03-0.80
0.19-0.02800.01340.08-0.02-0.84
0.15-0.02850.01160.07-0.02-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. 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