Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 27, 7:48 PM ET

PARR max pain

Spot (delayed)$76.69
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$50-34.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.1±17.1% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.16931 puts / 6K calls
Call wall$50largest call OI
Put wall$40largest put OI
IV3058.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$264Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $25

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, Sep 18$65-15.2%21d
Fri, Oct 16$50-34.8%49d
Fri, Dec 18$60-21.8%112d
Fri, Jan 15$80+4.3%140d
Fri, Mar 19$65-15.2%203d
Fri, May 21$75-2.2%266d
Fri, Aug 20$90+17.4%357d
Fri, Nov 19$40-47.8%448d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot5023426281101120$38M$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

spot5022.54060801004K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PARR 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

spot5022.54060801003030
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot23426281101120194%52%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 58.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 2522.5406080100+$130K$130K
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
0.99400.00130.01-0.01-0.01
0.98450.00230.01-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.00500.00400.02-0.01-0.04
0.93-0.01550.00690.04-0.02-0.06
0.88-0.03600.01110.06-0.03-0.11
0.81-0.04650.01610.08-0.04-0.19
0.70-0.05700.02070.10-0.06-0.29
0.59-0.06750.02340.11-0.06-0.41
0.47-0.06800.02380.11-0.06-0.53
0.36-0.06850.02220.11-0.06-0.64
0.28-0.06900.01950.10-0.05-0.72
0.21-0.05950.01640.08-0.04-0.80
0.15-0.041000.01330.07-0.03-0.85
0.11-0.031050.01060.06-0.02-0.89
0.08-0.031100.00840.04-0.01-0.92

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

spot20355575951154K0
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

spot20355575951154K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 11K call contracts, 2K 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: PARR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk