Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 1:53 AM ET

MHO max pain

Spot (delayed)$152.11
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$135-11.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$25.5±16.8% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.0734 puts / 522 calls
Call wall$145largest call OI
Put wall$165largest put OI
IV3032.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$120Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $115

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$150-1.4%5d
Fri, Sep 18$125-17.8%33d
Fri, Oct 16$130-14.5%61d
Fri, Jan 15$135-11.2%152d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot13580108136164192220$4M$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 — 135 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot13580110135160180460460
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MHO open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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 15

spot1358011013516018011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot8010813616419222045%31%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 32.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 11580110135160180+$117K$117K
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 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.92-0.021100.00360.15-0.02-0.08
0.90-0.021150.00440.18-0.02-0.10
0.88-0.021200.00540.21-0.03-0.13
0.81-0.031300.00760.27-0.03-0.20
0.77-0.031350.00880.30-0.04-0.24
0.72-0.041400.01000.34-0.04-0.29
0.67-0.041450.01100.36-0.04-0.35
0.61-0.041500.01180.38-0.04-0.41
0.48-0.041600.01260.40-0.04-0.54
0.42-0.041650.01250.39-0.04-0.60
0.37-0.041700.01210.37-0.04-0.67
0.31-0.041750.01150.35-0.04-0.73
0.27-0.031800.01070.33-0.04-0.78
0.18-0.031900.00870.27-0.03-0.88
0.08-0.012100.00490.15-0.01-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot901301451601751904520
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

spot7095120145170195912912
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 146 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: MHO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk