Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 11:23 PM ET

NTLA max pain

Spot (delayed)$11.9
Max pain · Fri, Jan 21$10-16.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$10.2±85.7% by Fri, Jan 21
Put/Call OI0.142K puts / 15K calls
Call wall$42largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3073.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$47Kper 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 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$11-7.6%4d
Fri, Sep 18$13+9.2%32d
Fri, Oct 16$11-7.6%60d
Fri, Jan 15$10-16.0%151d
Fri, Jan 21$10-16.0%522d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1031018263442$23M$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, Jan 21

spot102.51017.52532406K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NTLA open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 21.

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, Jan 21

spot102.51017.52532402323
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot31018263442168%77%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 93.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot2.51017.5253240+$22K$22K
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, Jan 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.970.002.50.00420.01-0.00-0.03
0.92-0.0050.01090.02-0.00-0.09
0.85-0.007.50.01740.03-0.00-0.15
0.78-0.00100.02220.04-0.00-0.23
0.72-0.0012.50.02540.05-0.00-0.29
0.66-0.00150.02750.05-0.00-0.36
0.61-0.0017.50.02870.06-0.01-0.41
0.56-0.01200.02940.06-0.01-0.47
0.53-0.0122.50.02960.06-0.01-0.51
0.49-0.01250.02950.06-0.01-0.56
0.46-0.01270.02930.06-0.01-0.59
0.43-0.01300.02890.06-0.01-0.63

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 17 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot17121722273K0
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

spot1712.51824328K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 63K call contracts, 20K 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: NTLA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk