Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 19, 11:47 PM ET

MA max pain

Spot (delayed)$565.24
Max pain · Fri, Oct 2$580+2.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$17.15±3.0% by Fri, Oct 2
Put/Call OI1.12667 puts / 593 calls
Call wall$590largest call OI
Put wall$550largest put OI
IV3019.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.2Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedThu, Oct 29usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$575+1.7%6d
Fri, Oct 2$580+2.6%13d
Fri, Oct 9$585+3.5%20d
Fri, Oct 16$565-0.0%27d
Fri, Oct 23$575+1.7%34d
Fri, Oct 30$575+1.7%41d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Oct 29)
Fri, Nov 20$555-1.8%62d
Fri, Dec 18$540-4.5%90d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot580330399468537606675$14M$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 — 580 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spot580330505547.5570600650131131
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MA open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 2.

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, Oct 2

spot580330505547.55706006504040
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spot48051955859763667571%15%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 19.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spot410510547.5567.5592.5630+$565K$565K
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, Oct 2

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.80-0.23547.50.01220.32-0.24-0.21
0.77-0.255500.01330.34-0.26-0.24
0.73-0.27552.50.01440.37-0.27-0.27
0.69-0.285550.01550.39-0.29-0.31
0.66-0.30557.50.01640.41-0.30-0.35
0.61-0.315600.01720.42-0.31-0.39
0.57-0.31562.50.01780.43-0.32-0.43
0.53-0.325650.01820.44-0.32-0.48
0.48-0.31567.50.01830.44-0.32-0.53
0.43-0.315700.01820.44-0.31-0.57
0.39-0.30572.50.01790.43-0.30-0.62
0.34-0.285750.01730.41-0.29-0.67
0.26-0.255800.01540.36-0.26-0.75
0.20-0.215850.01300.31-0.22-0.82
0.17-0.19587.50.01170.28-0.20-0.85

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 50 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot470535565587.56106452120
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

spot2403904705356006805K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 61K call contracts, 60K 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: MA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk