Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 9:22 PM ET

NVO max pain

Spot (delayed)$45.9
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$46+0.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.61±7.9% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI0.25439 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$47largest call OI
Put wall$47largest put OI
IV3028.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$218Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $46

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 21$46+0.2%5d
Fri, Aug 28$46.5+1.3%12d
Fri, Sep 4$47+2.4%19d
Fri, Sep 11$45-2.0%26d
Fri, Sep 18$45-2.0%33d
Fri, Sep 25$46+0.2%40d
Fri, Oct 2$45-2.0%47d
Fri, Oct 16$45-2.0%61d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot46384349546065$3M$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 — 46 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot463842465054551551
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NVO 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

spot4638424650543131
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot38434954606592%26%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spotflip 463842465054+$78K$78K
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
0.95-0.01390.03510.02-0.01-0.07
0.92-0.01400.04170.03-0.01-0.10
0.87-0.01410.04680.03-0.01-0.14
0.82-0.01420.05740.04-0.02-0.19
0.75-0.02430.06870.05-0.02-0.26
0.68-0.02440.07800.06-0.02-0.34
0.59-0.02450.08430.06-0.02-0.43
0.51-0.02460.08630.06-0.02-0.52
0.43-0.02470.08380.06-0.02-0.60
0.35-0.02480.07790.06-0.02-0.68
0.28-0.02490.07010.05-0.02-0.76
0.23-0.02500.06140.05-0.02-0.82
0.18-0.02510.05260.04-0.02-0.87
0.15-0.01520.04450.04-0.02-0.91
0.12-0.01530.03750.03-0.01-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot22.53843.547515726K0
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

spot204147.55790155116K116K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 873K call contracts, 581K 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: NVO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk