Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 4:20 AM ET

MBX max pain

Spot (delayed)$68.57
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$60-12.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.85±18.7% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.144 puts / 29 calls
Call wall$70largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3077.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $60

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$60-12.5%5d
Fri, Sep 18$60-12.5%33d
Fri, Oct 16$50-27.1%61d
Fri, Dec 18$20-70.8%124d
Fri, Jan 15$20-70.8%152d
Fri, Jan 21$15-78.1%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot605060708090100$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 — 60 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot60506575859566
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MBX 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

spot60506575859522
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot5060708090100119%61%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 75.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 605065758595+$680$680
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
0.90-0.05500.00920.04-0.05-0.10
0.75-0.08600.01850.07-0.08-0.25
0.64-0.09650.02240.08-0.09-0.36
0.52-0.09700.02410.09-0.09-0.48
0.40-0.09750.02350.08-0.09-0.59
0.30-0.08800.02120.07-0.08-0.69
0.23-0.07850.01810.06-0.07-0.78
0.16-0.06900.01470.05-0.06-0.84
0.12-0.05950.01160.04-0.05-0.89
0.08-0.041000.00890.03-0.04-0.92

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot25456075901054330
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

spot2.515305580105495495
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 716 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: MBX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk