Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 6:15 PM ET

NXE max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.29
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$10-2.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.93±18.7% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.553K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$13largest call OI
Put wall$8largest put OI
IV3059.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$38Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $12

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 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$10-2.8%3d
Fri, Sep 18$11+7.0%31d
Fri, Oct 16$10-2.8%59d
Fri, Nov 20$11+7.0%94d
Fri, Dec 18$11+7.0%122d
Fri, Jan 15$10-2.8%150d
Fri, Feb 19$11+7.0%185d
Fri, Jan 21$10-2.8%521d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot106912141720$4M$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, Oct 16

spot10691215182K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NXE open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot10691215186565
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot691214172097%54%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 58.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 1269121518+$28K$28K
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
0.97-0.0060.02130.00-0.00-0.03
0.93-0.0070.04300.01-0.00-0.06
0.87-0.0080.08020.01-0.01-0.13
0.76-0.0190.12740.01-0.01-0.24
0.60-0.01100.16080.02-0.01-0.40
0.44-0.01110.16250.02-0.01-0.56
0.31-0.01120.14110.01-0.01-0.69
0.21-0.01130.11290.01-0.01-0.79
0.15-0.01140.08690.01-0.01-0.86
0.11-0.00150.06590.01-0.00-0.90
0.08-0.00160.04990.01-0.00-0.94
0.06-0.00170.03790.01-0.00-0.96

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1610141819K0
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

spot15913172543K43K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 147K call contracts, 112K 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: NXE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk