Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 6:13 PM ET

MNDY max pain

Spot (delayed)$88.32
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$90+1.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$39.85±45.1% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI4.2393 puts / 22 calls
Call wall$90largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3062.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$3Kper 1% move

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$85-3.8%6d
Fri, Sep 18$80-9.4%34d
Fri, Oct 16$90+1.9%62d
Fri, Nov 20$65-26.4%97d
Fri, Jan 15$90+1.9%153d
Fri, Feb 19$105+18.9%188d
Fri, Mar 19$90+1.9%216d
Fri, May 21$100+13.2%279d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot90456585105125145$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 — 90 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot90456075951151402020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MNDY open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot904560759511514011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot45658510512514590%66%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 73.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot45607595115140+$1K$1K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.92-0.02500.00320.12-0.02-0.10
0.89-0.02550.00400.14-0.02-0.12
0.86-0.03600.00470.16-0.03-0.16
0.82-0.03650.00540.18-0.03-0.19
0.79-0.03700.00610.21-0.04-0.23
0.75-0.04750.00660.22-0.04-0.27
0.67-0.04850.00760.25-0.04-0.35
0.63-0.04900.00790.26-0.04-0.39
0.59-0.04950.00810.27-0.04-0.43
0.52-0.041050.00840.28-0.05-0.51
0.48-0.041100.00840.27-0.05-0.55
0.45-0.041150.00830.27-0.04-0.58
0.42-0.041200.00820.27-0.04-0.61
0.39-0.041250.00800.26-0.04-0.65
0.31-0.041400.00740.24-0.04-0.73

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 17 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3060901201501803K0
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

spot30851401953004105K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 35K call contracts, 36K 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: MNDY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk