Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 1:34 AM ET

NEU max pain

Spot (delayed)$961.92
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$750-22.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$56.6±5.9% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.0666 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$970largest call OI
Put wall$580largest put OI
IV3022.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$5.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $940

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$815-15.3%4d
Fri, Sep 18$750-22.0%32d
Fri, Dec 18$560-41.8%123d
Fri, Mar 19$860-10.6%214d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot7503304645987328661000$3M$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 — 750 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot750330460640775830940525525
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NEU 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

spot75033046064077583094011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot460568676784892100093%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 940545640750805860940+$2.9M$2.9M
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, Sep 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.89-0.268600.00200.58-0.27-0.12
0.80-0.339000.00340.82-0.34-0.21
0.75-0.369150.00410.92-0.36-0.26
0.73-0.369200.00440.98-0.37-0.28
0.69-0.389300.00481.03-0.38-0.32
0.64-0.399400.00531.10-0.39-0.37
0.59-0.409500.00561.15-0.39-0.42
0.47-0.399700.00601.18-0.39-0.54
0.31-0.3510000.00521.05-0.34-0.70

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 9 strikes around the money — all 39 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot30056073081090010005350
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

spot500610750855940980586586
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 125 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: NEU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk