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

ORCL max pain

Spot (delayed)$142.16
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$155+9.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$34.88±24.5% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.7179K puts / 111K calls
Call wall$200largest call OI
Put wall$120largest put OI
IV3062.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $65
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 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — 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

spot15560122184246308370$2.0B$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 — 155 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot1556010014018024032011K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ORCL open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot15560100140180240320777777
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot60122184246308370104%69%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 69.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 6560100140180240320+$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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.89-0.061050.00430.12-0.06-0.12
0.85-0.071100.00510.15-0.07-0.15
0.82-0.081150.00590.17-0.08-0.18
0.78-0.091200.00660.19-0.09-0.22
0.74-0.101250.00730.21-0.10-0.26
0.70-0.111300.00790.22-0.11-0.30
0.66-0.111350.00830.24-0.11-0.35
0.61-0.121400.00870.24-0.12-0.39
0.57-0.121450.00890.25-0.12-0.44
0.52-0.121500.00900.26-0.12-0.48
0.48-0.121550.00900.26-0.12-0.52
0.44-0.121600.00880.25-0.12-0.56
0.40-0.121650.00860.25-0.12-0.60
0.37-0.121700.00840.24-0.12-0.64
0.33-0.111750.00810.23-0.11-0.67

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 46 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