Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 22, 7:38 PM ET

LMT max pain

Spot (delayed)$522.55
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$537.5+2.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$11.15±2.1% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI0.732K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$540largest call OI
Put wall$520largest put OI
IV3030.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2.5Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedTue, Oct 20usually before the open

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$537.5+2.9%3d
Fri, Oct 2$545+4.3%10d
Fri, Oct 9$540+3.3%17d
Fri, Oct 16$540+3.3%24d
Fri, Oct 23$535+2.4%31d← 1st expiry after earnings (Tue, Oct 20)
Fri, Oct 30$535+2.4%38d
Fri, Nov 20$535+2.4%59d
Fri, Dec 18$530+1.4%87d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot537.5420496572648724800$59M$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 — 537.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot537.5420490515540565620283283
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LMT open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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 25

spot537.5420490515540565620110110
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot42045649252856460097%26%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 29.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot420485510532.5555595+$1.9M$1.9M
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 25

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.90-0.395050.01230.09-0.39-0.10
0.87-0.48507.50.01510.10-0.49-0.14
0.83-0.595100.01820.12-0.59-0.17
0.78-0.69512.50.02130.14-0.70-0.22
0.72-0.805150.02430.16-0.81-0.28
0.66-0.88517.50.02680.17-0.89-0.34
0.59-0.945200.02860.19-0.96-0.41
0.52-0.97522.50.02940.19-0.98-0.49
0.45-0.965250.02910.19-0.98-0.56
0.38-0.92527.50.02780.18-0.93-0.63
0.31-0.855300.02560.17-0.86-0.70
0.25-0.76532.50.02290.15-0.77-0.75
0.20-0.675350.02000.14-0.67-0.80
0.16-0.57537.50.01710.12-0.58-0.84
0.13-0.495400.01440.10-0.49-0.88

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

spot400522.5547.55806306853310
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

spot2204005055706408004K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 43K call contracts, 34K 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: LMT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk