Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 3:41 PM ET

NLY max pain

Spot (delayed)$23.39
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$23-1.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.44±6.1% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.7910K puts / 12K calls
Call wall$24largest call OI
Put wall$23largest put OI
IV3014.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$805Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $24

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 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$23-1.6%4d
Fri, Aug 28$23-1.6%11d
Fri, Sep 4$23-1.6%18d
Fri, Sep 11$23-1.6%25d
Fri, Sep 18$23-1.6%32d
Fri, Sep 25$23-1.6%39d
Fri, Oct 2$22.5-3.8%46d
Fri, Oct 16$23-1.6%60d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot23141721242831$9M$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 — 23 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot231417202326295K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NLY 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

spot231417202326291111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot14172124283157%14%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 15.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 24141720232629+$753K$753K
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
1.00160.00250.00-0.00-0.01
0.99170.00430.00-0.00-0.02
0.99180.00770.00-0.00-0.03
0.990.00190.01450.00-0.00-0.05
0.97-0.00200.02970.01-0.00-0.09
0.95-0.00210.06570.01-0.00-0.16
0.87-0.00220.15380.02-0.01-0.31
0.66-0.01230.29950.03-0.01-0.56
0.35-0.01240.29290.03-0.00-0.80
0.15-0.00250.16710.02-0.00-0.91
0.07-0.00260.08400.01-0.00-0.95
0.04-0.00270.04360.010.00-0.97
0.02-0.00280.02450.01-0.98
0.01-0.00290.01460.00-0.99
0.010.00300.00920.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1418.52123259K0
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: 63K 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