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

NOK max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.5
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$10-4.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.34±12.7% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI0.354K puts / 12K calls
Call wall$12largest call OI
Put wall$9.5largest put OI
IV3055.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$142Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $6.5

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

spot10479121417$6M$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 25

spot1046.58.510.512.514.54K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NOK open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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 25

spot1046.58.510.512.514.5408408
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot6810131517219%45%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 56.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spotflip 6.56810121417+$80K$80K
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 25

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.9970.01670.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.007.50.02960.00-0.00-0.03
0.96-0.0080.05080.00-0.00-0.04
0.92-0.008.50.08310.00-0.00-0.08
0.87-0.0190.12700.01-0.01-0.14
0.79-0.019.50.17660.01-0.01-0.22
0.68-0.01100.21920.01-0.01-0.32
0.56-0.0110.50.24100.01-0.01-0.44
0.44-0.01110.23760.01-0.01-0.56
0.34-0.0111.50.21530.01-0.01-0.67
0.26-0.01120.18400.01-0.01-0.75
0.19-0.0112.50.15160.01-0.01-0.81
0.15-0.01130.12240.01-0.01-0.86
0.11-0.0113.50.09790.01-0.01-0.90
0.09-0.01140.07810.01-0.00-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 24 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