Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 3:44 AM ET

META max pain

Spot (delayed)$647.58
Max pain · Wed, Sep 16$637.5-1.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$20.4±3.2% by Wed, Sep 16
Put/Call OI2.9418K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$620largest call OI
Put wall$615largest put OI
IV3036.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$10.4Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 28usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Mon, Sep 14$630-2.7%3d
Wed, Sep 16$637.5-1.6%5d
Fri, Sep 18$600-7.3%7d
Mon, Sep 21$635-1.9%10d
Wed, Sep 23$645-0.4%12d
Fri, Sep 25$615-5.0%14d
Fri, Oct 2$595-8.1%21d
Fri, Oct 9$610-5.8%28d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot637.5500540580620660700$177M$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 — 637.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot637.5500575602.5622.56456653K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)META open contracts per strike for Wed, Sep 16.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-102026-09-11

spot500550592.5620647.5675+2K2K
Net contracts opened (up, green) or closed (down, red) per strike since the previous snapshot — where the walls are building and where they’re unwinding. Biggest moves: 587.5 +2K · 650 +769 · 700 +617 · 655 +605

Volume by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot637.5500575602.5622.56456652K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot500540580620660700104%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 33.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot500575602.5622.5645665+$8.8M$8.8M
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 · Wed, Sep 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.77-0.816300.01180.23-0.81-0.23
0.73-0.87632.50.01260.25-0.87-0.27
0.70-0.926350.01340.26-0.92-0.30
0.67-0.97637.50.01410.28-0.97-0.33
0.63-1.006400.01470.29-1.01-0.37
0.59-1.03642.50.01510.29-1.04-0.41
0.56-1.056450.01540.30-1.06-0.45
0.52-1.06647.50.01560.30-1.07-0.48
0.48-1.066500.01560.30-1.07-0.52
0.44-1.05652.50.01540.30-1.06-0.56
0.40-1.036550.01510.29-1.04-0.60
0.37-1.00657.50.01460.29-1.01-0.64
0.33-0.966600.01410.28-0.97-0.67
0.30-0.92662.50.01340.26-0.92-0.70
0.27-0.876650.01270.25-0.87-0.74

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 48 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot5520595635672.575018K0
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.

Max pain history — nearest expiry vs price

07-2808-0508-1308-2108-3109-08651.50540.10
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot54906006757801100298K298K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2.3M call contracts, 1.0M 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: META workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk