Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 28, 3:44 AM ET

NOK max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.5
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$10-4.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.17±11.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.28183K puts / 662K calls
Call wall$15largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3055.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $4

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 28$10-4.7%today
Fri, Sep 4$10-4.7%7d
Fri, Sep 11$10-4.7%14d
Fri, Sep 18$10-4.7%21d
Fri, Sep 25$10-4.7%28d
Fri, Oct 2$10-4.7%35d
Fri, Oct 16$11+4.8%49d
Fri, Nov 20$10-4.7%84d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot101814212734$1.2B$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot10181216243278K78K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NOK 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

spot10181216243220K20K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot41016222834179%49%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 56.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 44912.5162330+$1.6M$1.6M
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
0.980.0070.01800.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.007.50.02990.00-0.00-0.03
0.96-0.0080.04950.00-0.00-0.04
0.93-0.008.50.08080.00-0.01-0.07
0.88-0.0190.12740.01-0.01-0.12
0.80-0.019.50.18780.01-0.01-0.20
0.69-0.01100.24660.01-0.01-0.31
0.55-0.0110.50.27790.01-0.01-0.45
0.42-0.01110.26910.01-0.01-0.58
0.31-0.0111.50.23340.01-0.01-0.69
0.22-0.01120.18970.01-0.01-0.78
0.17-0.0112.50.14960.01-0.01-0.84
0.12-0.01130.11680.01-0.01-0.88
0.09-0.0113.50.09120.00-0.01-0.91
0.07-0.01140.07160.00-0.01-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 43 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot15.58.511.514.517.534K0
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

spot15.51014.52029291K291K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2.7M call contracts, 881K 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: NOK workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk