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

OMER max pain

Spot (delayed)$17.38
Max pain · Fri, Jan 21$10-42.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.6±72.5% by Fri, Jan 21
Put/Call OI1.7110K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$10largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3065.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$22Kper 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$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

spot101815212835$14M$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 21

spot1014101725356K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)OMER open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 21.

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 21

spot101410172535101101
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot1815212835285%74%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 81.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spotflip 101410172535+$19K$19K
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 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.0030.00210.01-0.00-0.03
0.95-0.0040.00320.02-0.00-0.04
0.94-0.0050.00440.02-0.00-0.05
0.91-0.0070.00710.03-0.00-0.08
0.86-0.00100.01200.04-0.00-0.14
0.82-0.00120.01540.05-0.00-0.18
0.75-0.00150.01960.07-0.01-0.25
0.70-0.00170.02160.07-0.01-0.30
0.64-0.01200.02350.08-0.01-0.37
0.60-0.01220.02420.08-0.01-0.42
0.55-0.01250.02460.08-0.01-0.47
0.52-0.01270.02450.08-0.01-0.51
0.47-0.01300.02420.08-0.01-0.56
0.42-0.01350.02340.08-0.01-0.63

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 16 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