Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 10:58 PM ET

PAAS max pain

Spot (delayed)$48.18
Max pain · Fri, Sep 11$50+3.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.1±10.6% by Fri, Sep 11
Put/Call OI0.67621 puts / 926 calls
Call wall$50largest call OI
Put wall$45largest put OI
IV3047.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$32Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $41

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$45-6.6%3d
Fri, Aug 28$46-4.5%10d
Fri, Sep 4$49+1.7%17d
Fri, Sep 11$50+3.8%24d
Fri, Sep 18$48-0.4%31d
Fri, Sep 25$54+12.1%38d
Fri, Oct 2$48-0.4%45d
Fri, Oct 16$50+3.8%59d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot50374348545965$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 — 50 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot50374246505460425425
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PAAS 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

spot50374246505460250250
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot37434854596576%45%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 50.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spotflip 41374246505460+$45K$45K
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
0.89-0.03410.03030.02-0.03-0.11
0.86-0.03420.03650.03-0.03-0.14
0.82-0.03430.04310.03-0.03-0.18
0.78-0.04440.05000.04-0.04-0.22
0.72-0.04450.05670.04-0.04-0.28
0.66-0.04460.06240.05-0.04-0.34
0.60-0.04470.06650.05-0.04-0.40
0.53-0.05480.06830.05-0.05-0.47
0.46-0.05490.06790.05-0.05-0.54
0.40-0.04500.06540.05-0.05-0.60
0.34-0.04510.06140.05-0.04-0.66
0.29-0.04520.05630.04-0.04-0.71
0.24-0.04530.05090.04-0.04-0.76
0.21-0.04540.04540.04-0.04-0.80
0.17-0.03550.04010.03-0.03-0.83

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 22 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1837434752654K0
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

spot10293844506240K40K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 198K call contracts, 72K 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: PAAS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk