Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 2:50 AM ET

LOPE max pain

Spot (delayed)$141.84
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$160+12.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$10.3±7.3% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI3.38557 puts / 165 calls
Call wall$200largest call OI
Put wall$150largest put OI
IV3029.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$209Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $115

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$145+2.2%3d
Fri, Sep 18$160+12.8%31d
Fri, Dec 18$155+9.3%122d
Fri, Mar 19$100-29.5%213d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot160105134163192221250$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 — 160 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot160105130150170190220177177
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LOPE 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

spot16010513015017019022011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot105134163192221250111%28%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 30.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 115105130150170190220+$101K$101K
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
0.99-0.001050.00140.01-0.01-0.01
0.97-0.011150.00410.03-0.02-0.03
0.95-0.021200.00700.05-0.03-0.05
0.91-0.041250.01150.07-0.04-0.10
0.84-0.051300.01780.10-0.05-0.16
0.73-0.071350.02520.14-0.07-0.27
0.59-0.071400.03100.16-0.08-0.41
0.43-0.071450.03220.17-0.08-0.57
0.29-0.061500.02800.14-0.07-0.72
0.18-0.051550.02100.11-0.05-0.84
0.10-0.041600.01430.08-0.04-0.92
0.06-0.021650.00920.05-0.03-0.96
0.04-0.021700.00590.04-0.02-0.99
0.02-0.011750.00380.02-0.02-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 22 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1001251501701902206950
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

spot75105135165195250696696
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 862 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: LOPE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk