Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 11:28 PM ET

MANU max pain

Spot (delayed)$24.19
Max pain · Fri, Jan 21$17-29.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.45±39.1% by Fri, Jan 21
Put/Call OI0.10122 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$30largest call OI
Put wall$17largest put OI
IV3046.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$21Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $10

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$22-9.1%4d
Fri, Sep 18$17-29.7%32d
Fri, Dec 18$17-29.7%123d
Fri, Jan 15$17-29.7%151d
Fri, Mar 19$18-25.6%214d
Fri, Jan 21$17-29.7%522d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot173814192530$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 — 17 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot173813172227772772
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MANU open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 21.

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, Jan 21

spot17381317222722
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot381419253086%42%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 44.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spotflip 1051015202530+$14K$14K
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, Jan 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.9780.00330.02-0.00-0.03
0.96100.00540.03-0.00-0.04
0.92-0.00130.00970.04-0.00-0.08
0.89-0.00150.01330.06-0.00-0.11
0.85-0.00170.01730.07-0.00-0.16
0.77-0.00200.02310.09-0.00-0.24
0.72-0.00220.02630.10-0.00-0.30
0.63-0.00250.02970.11-0.01-0.40
0.57-0.00270.03090.11-0.01-0.46
0.49-0.00300.03120.12-0.01-0.55

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 12 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot914182226306K0
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

spot311162126318K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 15K call contracts, 10K 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: MANU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk