Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 12:16 AM ET

ORCL max pain

Spot (delayed)$142.16
Max pain · Fri, Sep 4$137-3.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$21.15±14.9% by Fri, Sep 4
Put/Call OI0.506K puts / 12K calls
Call wall$145largest call OI
Put wall$148largest put OI
IV3062.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.9Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $138
Earnings · expectedTue, Sep 8usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 · Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 7$132-7.1%2d
Fri, Aug 14$128-10.0%9d
Fri, Aug 21$140-1.5%16d
Fri, Aug 28$130-8.6%23d
Fri, Sep 4$137-3.6%30d
Fri, Sep 11$140-1.5%37d← 1st expiry after earnings (Tue, Sep 8)
Fri, Sep 18$155+9.0%44d
Fri, Oct 16$155+9.0%72d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot13780101122143164185$39M$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 — 137 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot13780116126137148172.54K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ORCL open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 4.

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 4

spot13780116126137148172.5211211
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot80101122143164185114%56%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 64.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spotflip 13880116126137148172.5+$1.1M$1.1M
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 4

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.69-0.151350.01380.15-0.15-0.32
0.67-0.151360.01400.15-0.15-0.33
0.66-0.161370.01430.15-0.16-0.34
0.64-0.161380.01450.15-0.16-0.36
0.63-0.161390.01470.16-0.16-0.38
0.61-0.161400.01490.16-0.17-0.39
0.60-0.171410.01500.16-0.17-0.41
0.58-0.171420.01520.16-0.17-0.42
0.57-0.171430.01530.16-0.17-0.44
0.54-0.171450.01540.17-0.17-0.47
0.52-0.171460.01540.17-0.17-0.48
0.50-0.171470.01540.17-0.17-0.50
0.49-0.171480.01540.17-0.17-0.51
0.46-0.171500.01530.16-0.17-0.54
0.42-0.17152.50.01510.16-0.17-0.58

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 55 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot7011813314819034048K0
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

spot60110150200300430124K124K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1.8M call contracts, 1.4M 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: ORCL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk