Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 5:03 AM ET

NDSN max pain

Spot (delayed)$308.72
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$250-19.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$19.05±6.2% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.3592 puts / 260 calls
Call wall$330largest call OI
Put wall$300largest put OI
IV3026.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$116Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $220

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$290-6.1%4d
Fri, Sep 18$250-19.0%32d
Fri, Dec 18$260-15.8%123d
Fri, Mar 19$230-25.5%214d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot250160206252298344390$2M$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 — 250 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot2501601902302803303806161
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NDSN open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

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, Sep 18

spot25016019023028033038022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot18022226430634839098%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 220160195240300350+$70K$70K
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, Sep 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.052400.00170.07-0.05-0.04
0.95-0.062500.00250.10-0.06-0.05
0.93-0.072600.00360.12-0.08-0.07
0.90-0.092700.00520.17-0.09-0.11
0.85-0.102800.00760.22-0.11-0.16
0.78-0.122900.01090.28-0.12-0.23
0.66-0.143000.01470.35-0.14-0.35
0.50-0.143100.01710.38-0.14-0.51
0.34-0.123200.01580.35-0.12-0.67
0.21-0.103300.01210.28-0.10-0.79
0.14-0.083400.00850.21-0.08-0.87
0.09-0.063500.00590.16-0.06-0.91
0.06-0.053600.00410.12-0.05-0.94
0.04-0.043700.00300.09-0.04-0.96
0.03-0.033800.00220.07-0.04-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 27 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1802302703103503903400
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

spot160190240300360420341341
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 748 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: NDSN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk