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

MU max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,098
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$920-16.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$147.68±13.5% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.12186K puts / 166K calls
Call wall$1,000largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3064.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$100.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $1,050

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — 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

spot920555441033152220112500$21.1B$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 — 920 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot92055340600780920110015K15K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MU open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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 16

spot9205534060078092011006K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot1956561117157820392500205%64%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 65.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 10505807008209209901300+$21.2M$21.2M
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 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.83-0.959500.00140.71-0.97-0.17
0.81-1.009600.00150.76-1.02-0.19
0.80-1.069700.00150.80-1.07-0.20
0.78-1.119800.00160.83-1.13-0.22
0.76-1.179900.00170.87-1.18-0.24
0.74-1.2210000.00180.91-1.23-0.26
0.64-1.4310500.00201.05-1.44-0.36
0.53-1.5411000.00211.12-1.55-0.47
0.43-1.5411500.00211.10-1.55-0.57
0.34-1.4612000.00191.03-1.46-0.66
0.26-1.3112500.00170.92-1.31-0.74
0.20-1.1513000.00140.79-1.14-0.80
0.12-0.8214000.00100.55-0.81-0.89
0.07-0.5615000.00060.37-0.55-0.94
0.04-0.3816000.00040.24-0.38-0.97

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