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

PDS max pain

Spot (delayed)$84.63
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$70-17.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$20.8±24.6% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.201 puts / 5 calls
Call wall$70largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3038.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$244per 1% move

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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — 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

spot70708192103114125$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 — 70 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot7070759512012522
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PDS open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot7070759512012511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot70819210311412544%38%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 40.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot707595120125+$146$146
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.79-0.02700.01020.19-0.02-0.21
0.73-0.02750.01210.22-0.02-0.28
0.43-0.02950.01570.26-0.02-0.59
0.16-0.011200.01000.16-0.02-0.91
0.13-0.011250.00860.14-0.01-0.95

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

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