Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 3:16 AM ET

PDS max pain

Spot (delayed)$84.63
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$90+6.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.43±8.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.14169 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$90largest call OI
Put wall$90largest put OI
IV3038.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$244Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $80

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$75-11.4%6d
Fri, Sep 18$90+6.3%34d
Fri, Dec 18$75-11.4%125d
Fri, Mar 19$70-17.3%216d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot90507090110130150$7M$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 — 90 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot90507090110130986986
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PDS 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

spot9050709011013011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot507090110130150128%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 80507090110130+$238K$238K
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
0.97-0.02500.00260.02-0.02-0.03
0.96-0.03550.00380.02-0.03-0.04
0.94-0.03600.00580.03-0.03-0.06
0.91-0.04650.00890.04-0.04-0.08
0.87-0.04700.01370.06-0.04-0.13
0.80-0.05750.02100.07-0.05-0.20
0.68-0.06800.03100.09-0.06-0.31
0.51-0.06850.04000.10-0.06-0.49
0.30-0.05900.03780.09-0.05-0.69
0.16-0.03950.02610.07-0.03-0.84
0.09-0.021000.01600.04-0.02-0.91
0.05-0.021050.00990.03-0.02-0.95
0.03-0.011100.00630.02-0.01-0.97
0.02-0.011150.00430.01-0.01-0.98
0.02-0.011200.00300.01-0.01-0.99

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

spot5575951151351K0
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

spot4060801001201401K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 203 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: PDS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk