Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 6:20 AM ET

MESO max pain

Spot (delayed)$16.49
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$15-9.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.45±33.1% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.971K puts / 759 calls
Call wall$19largest call OI
Put wall$14largest put OI
IV3090.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$10Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $14

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 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$16-3.0%7d
Fri, Sep 18$14-15.1%35d
Fri, Oct 16$15-9.0%63d
Fri, Jan 15$10-39.4%154d
Fri, Jan 21$5-69.7%525d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot15101418222630$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 — 15 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot151013151719301K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MESO open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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 16

spot1510131517193011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot101418222630167%76%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 101.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 14101315171930+$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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.87-0.01100.02170.01-0.01-0.13
0.81-0.01120.03310.02-0.02-0.19
0.77-0.02130.04000.02-0.02-0.23
0.72-0.02140.04740.02-0.02-0.27
0.66-0.02150.05400.03-0.02-0.33
0.60-0.02160.05860.03-0.02-0.39
0.54-0.02170.06020.03-0.02-0.45
0.49-0.02180.05900.03-0.02-0.50
0.45-0.02190.05630.03-0.02-0.55
0.41-0.02200.05300.03-0.02-0.58
0.26-0.03300.03100.02-0.02-0.73

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

spot1013151719212K0
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

spot311162126315K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 33K call contracts, 5K 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: MESO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk