Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 2:52 AM ET

OUT max pain

Spot (delayed)$30.24
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$30-0.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.6±8.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.16117 puts / 741 calls
Call wall$35largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3032.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$44Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $30

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$30-0.8%6d
Fri, Sep 18$30-0.8%34d
Fri, Dec 18$29-4.1%125d
Fri, Mar 19$25-17.3%216d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot30151924283337$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 — 30 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot30151923273135356356
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)OUT 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

spot3015192327313511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot182226293337136%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 34.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 30151923273135+$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, Sep 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.93-0.01230.02370.01-0.01-0.09
0.91-0.01240.02980.01-0.02-0.11
0.89-0.02250.03810.02-0.02-0.13
0.87-0.02260.04960.02-0.02-0.16
0.83-0.02270.06580.02-0.02-0.19
0.78-0.02280.08900.03-0.02-0.25
0.70-0.02290.12060.03-0.02-0.34
0.57-0.02300.15080.04-0.02-0.47
0.42-0.02310.14960.04-0.01-0.61
0.31-0.01320.12170.03-0.01-0.72
0.23-0.01330.09450.03-0.01-0.79
0.19-0.01340.07430.03-0.01-0.84
0.15-0.01350.05990.02-0.01-0.87
0.13-0.01360.04940.02-0.01-0.89
0.11-0.01370.04150.02-0.01-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2326293235394K0
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

spot1520253035404K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5K call contracts, 177 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: OUT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk