Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 10:30 PM ET

MAR max pain

Spot (delayed)$355.69
Max pain · Fri, Sep 11$350-1.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$18.1±5.1% by Fri, Sep 11
Put/Call OI0.4476 puts / 173 calls
Call wall$380largest call OI
Put wall$330largest put OI
IV3023.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$188Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $290

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$360+1.2%3d
Fri, Aug 28$355-0.2%10d
Fri, Sep 4$360+1.2%17d
Fri, Sep 11$350-1.6%24d
Fri, Sep 18$330-7.2%31d
Fri, Sep 25$350-1.6%38d
Fri, Oct 2$365+2.6%45d
Fri, Oct 16$350-1.6%59d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot350250286322358394430$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 — 350 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot3502502953253503804104545
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MAR open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 11.

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 11

spot3502502953253503804101010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot25028532035539042561%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spotflip 290250295325350380410+$82K$82K
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 11

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.92-0.083200.00530.14-0.09-0.08
0.90-0.093250.00660.17-0.09-0.10
0.87-0.103300.00830.20-0.11-0.13
0.83-0.123350.01040.24-0.12-0.17
0.78-0.143400.01270.28-0.14-0.23
0.71-0.153450.01490.32-0.16-0.29
0.63-0.173500.01680.35-0.17-0.37
0.54-0.173550.01800.37-0.18-0.46
0.45-0.173600.01830.37-0.17-0.55
0.36-0.163650.01760.35-0.16-0.65
0.21-0.123750.01360.27-0.12-0.81
0.15-0.103800.01110.23-0.10-0.86
0.12-0.093850.00890.19-0.09-0.90
0.10-0.083900.00720.17-0.08-0.92
0.09-0.083950.00600.15-0.08-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 29 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1852903403653904504940
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

spot1502403153553904709K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 31K call contracts, 24K 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: MAR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk