Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 27, 1:14 PM ET

LLY max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,186
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$1,080-8.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$76.55±6.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.9836K puts / 36K calls
Call wall$1,320largest call OI
Put wall$520largest put OI
IV3031.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$51.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $1,220

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 28$1,210+2.0%1d
Fri, Sep 4$1,193+0.6%8d
Fri, Sep 11$1,195+0.8%15d
Fri, Sep 18$1,080-8.9%22d
Fri, Sep 25$1,230+3.7%29d
Fri, Oct 2$1,235+4.2%36d
Fri, Oct 16$1,160-2.2%50d
Fri, Nov 20$1,140-3.9%85d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1080480712944117614081640$1.4B$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 — 1080 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot10804807309501100124013805K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LLY 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

spot1080480730950110012401380673673
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot480712944117614081640124%29%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 32.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 122085010201120124013401580+$10.4M$10.4M
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
0.89-0.3910800.00190.57-0.41-0.11
0.85-0.4911000.00240.71-0.50-0.15
0.82-0.5411100.00270.78-0.55-0.18
0.79-0.5811200.00300.86-0.60-0.21
0.73-0.6811400.00350.99-0.69-0.27
0.69-0.7211500.00371.05-0.73-0.31
0.65-0.7511600.00391.10-0.76-0.35
0.57-0.8011800.00421.17-0.81-0.43
0.49-0.8112000.00431.19-0.82-0.52
0.40-0.7812200.00421.16-0.79-0.60
0.36-0.7612300.00401.12-0.77-0.65
0.33-0.7212400.00391.08-0.74-0.68
0.29-0.6912500.00371.02-0.70-0.72
0.26-0.6512600.00340.97-0.66-0.76
0.23-0.6012700.00320.90-0.62-0.79

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot800110511701225128514601K0
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

spot3207108701030122014409K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 160K call contracts, 206K 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: LLY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk