Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 2:38 PM ET

OCUL max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.79
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$10-7.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.25±39.4% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.402K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$10largest call OI
Put wall$8largest put OI
IV3085.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$21Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $10

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$9-16.6%3d
Fri, Sep 18$9-16.6%31d
Fri, Oct 16$9-16.6%59d
Fri, Dec 18$9-16.6%122d
Fri, Jan 15$10-7.3%150d
Fri, Mar 19$5-53.7%213d
Fri, Jan 21$8-25.9%521d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot103814192530$8M$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 15

spot1037101317252K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)OCUL open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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 15

spot1037101317256060
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot3814192530192%62%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 78.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 103710131725+$10K$10K
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 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.0030.00730.00-0.00-0.02
0.93-0.0050.01880.01-0.00-0.07
0.89-0.0060.02730.01-0.00-0.10
0.84-0.0070.03680.02-0.01-0.15
0.79-0.0180.04610.02-0.01-0.20
0.72-0.0190.05400.02-0.01-0.27
0.66-0.01100.05960.03-0.01-0.33
0.60-0.01110.06310.03-0.01-0.40
0.54-0.01120.06450.03-0.01-0.46
0.48-0.01130.06440.03-0.01-0.51
0.43-0.01140.06310.03-0.01-0.56
0.39-0.01150.06110.03-0.01-0.61
0.32-0.01170.05580.03-0.01-0.68
0.23-0.01200.04700.02-0.01-0.77
0.19-0.01220.04160.02-0.01-0.81

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 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

spot159131716K0
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

spot15913172217K17K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 48K 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: OCUL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk