Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 3:02 PM ET

MSGE max pain

Spot (delayed)$85.08
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$65-23.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$17.35±20.4% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.2847 puts / 168 calls
Call wall$90largest call OI
Put wall$70largest put OI
IV3038.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$14Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $50

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$75-11.8%6d
Fri, Sep 18$75-11.8%34d
Fri, Oct 16$60-29.5%62d
Fri, Jan 15$65-23.6%153d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot6540557085100115$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 — 65 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot65406075901055656
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MSGE 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

spot654060759010577
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot4055708510011567%38%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 39.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 5040607590105+$7K$7K
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
0.97450.00180.03-0.01-0.02
0.960.00500.00280.04-0.01-0.04
0.91-0.01600.00610.09-0.01-0.09
0.87-0.01650.00850.12-0.02-0.13
0.82-0.02700.01120.15-0.02-0.18
0.75-0.02750.01390.18-0.02-0.26
0.67-0.02800.01620.20-0.03-0.34
0.58-0.03850.01780.22-0.03-0.43
0.49-0.03900.01840.22-0.03-0.52
0.41-0.03950.01800.22-0.03-0.61
0.33-0.021000.01680.20-0.02-0.69
0.26-0.021050.01510.18-0.02-0.77
0.21-0.021100.01320.16-0.02-0.83
0.16-0.021150.01130.14-0.01-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot35506580951340
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

spot35506580951102K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 497 call contracts, 2K 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: MSGE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk