Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 13, 7:01 AM ET

LULU max pain

Spot (delayed)$98.9
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$104+5.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.8±5.9% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI0.904K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$100largest put OI
Net GEX−$439Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Sep 18$105+6.2%5d
Fri, Sep 25$104+5.2%12d
Fri, Oct 2$100+1.1%19d
Fri, Oct 9$100+1.1%26d
Fri, Oct 16$105+6.2%33d
Fri, Oct 23$100+1.1%40d
Fri, Oct 30$96-2.9%47d
Fri, Nov 20$105+6.2%68d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1046585105125145165$22M$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 — 104 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot1046596.5106115124135965965
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LULU 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

spot1046596.5106115124135379379
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot6585105125145165106%16%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 37.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot6596.5106115124135+$270K$270K
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
0.81-0.07930.03580.05-0.07-0.19
0.73-0.09950.04450.06-0.09-0.27
0.68-0.10960.04810.07-0.10-0.32
0.66-0.1096.50.04960.07-0.10-0.34
0.63-0.10970.05090.07-0.10-0.37
0.61-0.1097.50.05200.07-0.10-0.40
0.58-0.10980.05280.08-0.10-0.42
0.55-0.1198.50.05340.08-0.11-0.45
0.47-0.111000.05360.08-0.11-0.53
0.33-0.101030.04800.07-0.10-0.68
0.28-0.091040.04480.07-0.09-0.73
0.24-0.081050.04120.06-0.09-0.77
0.21-0.081060.03740.06-0.08-0.80
0.18-0.071070.03360.05-0.07-0.83
0.15-0.061080.02990.04-0.07-0.86

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 54 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot60981121261502408K0
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

spot6010514019028044030K30K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 294K call contracts, 193K 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: LULU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk