Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 9:38 PM ET

OPEN max pain

Spot (delayed)$3.53
Max pain · Fri, Sep 11$3.5-0.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.62±17.6% by Fri, Sep 11
Put/Call OI0.15539 puts / 4K calls
Call wall$4largest call OI
Put wall$3.5largest put OI
IV3071.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$14Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$3.5-0.8%4d
Fri, Aug 28$3.5-0.8%11d
Fri, Sep 4$3.5-0.8%18d
Fri, Sep 11$3.5-0.8%25d
Fri, Sep 18$4+13.3%32d
Fri, Sep 25$3.5-0.8%39d
Fri, Oct 2$4+13.3%46d
Fri, Oct 16$4+13.3%60d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot3.5124578$1M$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 — 3.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot3.50.52.545.571K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)OPEN open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 11.

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 11

spot3.50.52.545.571K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot345678273%43%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 83.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot0.52.545.57+$8K$8K
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 11

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.000.000.50.00380.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.0010.01080.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.001.50.02550.00-0.00-0.02
0.93-0.002.50.14290.00-0.00-0.07
0.83-0.0030.35240.00-0.00-0.17
0.58-0.013.50.60680.00-0.01-0.43
0.32-0.0140.50320.00-0.01-0.69
0.18-0.004.50.32920.00-0.00-0.83
0.12-0.0050.21580.00-0.00-0.90
0.08-0.005.50.14680.00-0.00-0.94
0.05-0.0060.10360.00-0.00-0.96
0.04-0.006.50.07550.00-0.00-0.98
0.03-0.0070.05640.00-0.00-0.99

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

spot0.52.54.56.58.51235K0
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

spot0.52.54.56.58.512178K178K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 832K call contracts, 144K 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: OPEN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk