Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 5:02 PM ET

MAN max pain

Spot (delayed)$57.06
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$40-29.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.5±11.4% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI3.83889 puts / 232 calls
Call wall$30largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV3048.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$45per 1% move · flip ≈ $70

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$55-3.6%3d
Fri, Sep 18$40-29.9%31d
Fri, Oct 16$30-47.4%59d
Fri, Dec 18$50-12.4%122d
Fri, Mar 19$50-12.4%213d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot40152739516375$1M$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 — 40 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot401525405570330330
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MAN 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

spot40152540557011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot253545556575169%43%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 47.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 701525405570+$5K$5K
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
1.0022.50.00040.00-0.00-0.00
1.00250.00060.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00300.00140.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.01350.00300.01-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.01400.00660.01-0.01-0.04
0.92-0.02450.01420.03-0.02-0.08
0.82-0.04500.02820.04-0.04-0.18
0.64-0.05550.04460.06-0.05-0.36
0.40-0.05600.04830.07-0.05-0.61
0.20-0.04650.03550.05-0.04-0.81
0.10-0.02700.02050.03-0.02-0.92
0.04-0.01750.01070.02-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 14 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1522.53550654860
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

spot1522.535506580600600
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 3K 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: MAN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk