Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 19, 2:02 PM ET

PDFS max pain

Spot (delayed)$46.82
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$50+6.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.95±17.0% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.3018 puts / 61 calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$45largest put OI
IV3076.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $55

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$40-14.6%2d
Fri, Sep 18$50+6.8%30d
Fri, Nov 20$40-14.6%93d
Fri, Feb 19$30-35.9%184d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot50404652586470$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 18

spot50405060703737
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PDFS 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

spot504050607022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot40465258647088%65%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 73.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 5540506070+$2K$2K
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
0.81-0.04400.02680.04-0.04-0.19
0.63-0.06450.03680.05-0.06-0.37
0.45-0.07500.03710.05-0.07-0.56
0.30-0.06550.03130.05-0.06-0.70
0.20-0.05600.02410.04-0.05-0.81
0.13-0.04650.01770.03-0.04-0.88
0.09-0.03700.01280.02-0.03-0.92

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1530456075901K0
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

spot15254565851K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 596 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: PDFS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk