Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 3:49 PM ET

LMT max pain

Spot (delayed)$580.35
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$545-6.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$42.1±7.3% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.7610K puts / 13K calls
Call wall$700largest call OI
Put wall$530largest put OI
IV3026.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$6.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $600

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 · 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 7$565-2.6%1d
Fri, Aug 14$560-3.5%8d
Fri, Aug 21$540-7.0%15d
Fri, Aug 28$540-7.0%22d
Fri, Sep 4$580-0.1%29d
Fri, Sep 11$585+0.8%36d
Fri, Sep 18$545-6.1%43d
Fri, Nov 20$525-9.5%106d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot545230380530680830980$430M$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 — 545 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot5452304104905456006501K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LMT 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

spot54523041049054560065099
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot230380530680830980103%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 26.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 600350440515565620690+$2.7M$2.7M
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
0.79-0.175450.00590.57-0.18-0.23
0.76-0.185500.00640.62-0.20-0.26
0.72-0.205550.00680.67-0.21-0.30
0.69-0.215600.00710.70-0.22-0.33
0.65-0.225650.00740.74-0.23-0.37
0.61-0.235700.00760.76-0.23-0.41
0.57-0.235750.00770.78-0.23-0.45
0.53-0.245800.00780.79-0.24-0.48
0.49-0.245850.00780.79-0.24-0.52
0.46-0.245900.00770.79-0.23-0.56
0.38-0.236000.00730.76-0.22-0.63
0.35-0.236050.00700.74-0.21-0.67
0.32-0.226100.00670.71-0.20-0.70
0.29-0.216150.00640.68-0.19-0.73
0.26-0.206200.00600.65-0.18-0.75

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

spot315435510562.5612.56859120
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

spot2203904755406157005K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 54K call contracts, 55K 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