Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 23, 3:58 AM ET

NVDA max pain

Spot (delayed)$228.56
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$205-10.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$14.75±6.5% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.67577K puts / 861K calls
Call wall$220largest call OI
Put wall$220largest put OI
IV3031.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$329.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $180
Earnings · expectedWed, Nov 18usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: 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
Wed, Sep 23$222.5-2.7%today
Fri, Sep 25$220-3.7%2d
Mon, Sep 28$220-3.7%5d
Wed, Sep 30$217.5-4.8%7d
Fri, Oct 2$220-3.7%9d
Mon, Oct 5$225-1.6%12d
Fri, Oct 9$215-5.9%16d
Fri, Oct 16$205-10.3%23d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot205596187278369460$18.7B$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 — 205 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot2055130175220260310108K108K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NVDA open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-212026-09-22

spot65135175215250290+4K4K
Net contracts opened (up, green) or closed (down, red) per strike since the previous snapshot — where the walls are building and where they’re unwinding. Biggest moves: 227.5 +4K · 250 +4K · 65 +4K · 210 +4K

Volume by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot205513017522026031013K13K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot100172244316388460121%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 31.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 180100145185225260300+$62.3M$62.3M
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
0.95-0.041950.00440.06-0.05-0.05
0.93-0.062000.00610.08-0.06-0.07
0.90-0.072050.00840.10-0.08-0.10
0.85-0.092100.01140.14-0.10-0.15
0.79-0.122150.01470.17-0.12-0.21
0.71-0.132200.01800.20-0.14-0.29
0.61-0.152250.02060.23-0.15-0.39
0.56-0.15227.50.02140.23-0.15-0.44
0.51-0.152300.02180.23-0.15-0.50
0.40-0.152350.02140.23-0.15-0.61
0.30-0.132400.01930.20-0.13-0.71
0.22-0.112450.01620.17-0.11-0.80
0.15-0.092500.01290.14-0.09-0.86
0.10-0.072550.00980.11-0.07-0.92
0.07-0.052600.00720.08-0.06-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 51 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot85150192.5215237.5265143K0
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.

Max pain history — nearest expiry vs price

07-2808-0608-1708-2609-0409-15230.01189.69
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot0.580145205250330538K538K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7.6M call contracts, 6.6M 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: NVDA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk