Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 23, 3:55 AM ET

MU max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,098
Max pain · Fri, Oct 9$965-12.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$130.4±11.9% by Fri, Oct 9
Put/Call OI1.2722K puts / 18K calls
Call wall$1,000largest call OI
Put wall$340largest put OI
IV3064.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$16.3Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $1,040

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Wed, Sep 23$1,030-6.2%today
Fri, Sep 25$990-9.8%2d
Mon, Sep 28$960-12.5%5d
Fri, Oct 2$935-14.8%9d
Mon, Oct 5$1,025-6.6%12d
Fri, Oct 9$965-12.1%16d
Fri, Oct 16$920-16.2%23d
Fri, Oct 23$990-9.8%30d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot965285574863115214411730$1.1B$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 — 965 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spot965285750880970103011402K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MU open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 9.

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 9

spot96528575088097010301140728728
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spot285574863115214411730192%66%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 69.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spotflip 1040700860945101010701250+$1.9M$1.9M
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 9

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.69-1.6810300.00220.83-1.70-0.31
0.68-1.7110350.00220.84-1.72-0.32
0.67-1.7410400.00220.86-1.75-0.33
0.65-1.7910500.00230.88-1.80-0.35
0.62-1.8310600.00230.90-1.85-0.38
0.60-1.8710700.00240.92-1.88-0.40
0.57-1.9010800.00240.93-1.91-0.43
0.53-1.9411000.00240.94-1.95-0.48
0.50-1.9511100.00240.94-1.96-0.50
0.48-1.9611200.00240.94-1.96-0.52
0.43-1.9411400.00240.93-1.95-0.57
0.41-1.9311500.00230.92-1.93-0.59
0.31-1.7812000.00210.84-1.78-0.69
0.25-1.6112400.00180.75-1.60-0.76
0.23-1.5612500.00180.72-1.55-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot18585094010151090117010K0
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

spot5200420740930115058K58K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1.5M call contracts, 1.6M 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: MU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk