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

PAAS max pain

Spot (delayed)$48.18
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$50+3.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.75±16.1% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.519K puts / 17K calls
Call wall$45largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3047.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$347Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $45

Event risk before this expiration: 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 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

spot50253953678195$55M$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, Oct 16

spot5025374860803K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PAAS 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

spot502537486080404404
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot25395367819588%43%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 49.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 452537486080+$208K$208K
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
0.98-0.00300.00370.01-0.00-0.02
0.95-0.01350.01070.02-0.01-0.06
0.93-0.01360.01290.03-0.01-0.07
0.92-0.01370.01530.03-0.01-0.08
0.85-0.02400.02410.05-0.02-0.15
0.76-0.02430.03320.06-0.03-0.25
0.68-0.03450.03800.07-0.03-0.33
0.55-0.03480.04160.08-0.03-0.45
0.51-0.03490.04180.08-0.03-0.49
0.47-0.03500.04150.08-0.03-0.53
0.30-0.03550.03520.07-0.03-0.71
0.19-0.02600.02590.05-0.02-0.83
0.11-0.02650.01790.04-0.02-0.91
0.07-0.01700.01200.03-0.01-0.95
0.04-0.01750.00810.02-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 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