Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 2:00 AM ET

NLY max pain

Spot (delayed)$23.33
Max pain · Fri, Oct 2$22-5.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.52±6.5% by Fri, Oct 2
Put wall$22largest put OI
IV3014.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1Kper 1% move

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 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$23-1.4%4d
Fri, Aug 28$22.5-3.6%11d
Fri, Sep 4$23-1.4%18d
Fri, Sep 11$23-1.4%25d
Fri, Sep 18$23-1.4%32d
Fri, Sep 25$23-1.4%39d
Fri, Oct 2$22-5.7%46d
Fri, Oct 16$23-1.4%60d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 2

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 2

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1418.521.523.525.59K0
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

spot31619.522.525.528.522K22K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 62K call contracts, 73K 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: NLY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk