Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 8:06 PM ET

OMER max pain

Spot (delayed)$17.38
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$15-13.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.85±16.4% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.542K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$14largest call OI
Put wall$16largest put OI
IV3065.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$28Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $11

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$10-42.5%7d
Fri, Sep 18$15-13.7%35d
Fri, Nov 20$12-31.0%98d
Fri, Dec 18$10-42.5%126d
Fri, Jan 15$7-59.7%154d
Fri, Feb 19$2-88.5%189d
Fri, Jan 21$10-42.5%525d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1581114161922$2M$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 — 15 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot15811141720674674
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)OMER open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

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 18

spot15811141720512512
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot81114161922207%60%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 66.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 11811141720+$16K$16K
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 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.01100.01250.00-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.01110.01850.01-0.01-0.04
0.93-0.01120.02730.01-0.01-0.07
0.90-0.01130.03990.01-0.01-0.10
0.85-0.01140.05680.01-0.01-0.14
0.79-0.01150.07730.02-0.02-0.21
0.70-0.02160.09760.02-0.02-0.30
0.59-0.02170.11140.02-0.02-0.41
0.47-0.02180.11420.02-0.02-0.53
0.37-0.02190.10700.02-0.02-0.63
0.29-0.02200.09420.02-0.02-0.72
0.22-0.02210.07990.02-0.02-0.78
0.17-0.01220.06650.01-0.01-0.83

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 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

spot39152127336K0
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

spot171319253112K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 67K call contracts, 34K 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: OMER workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk