Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 22, 3:48 PM ET

PEP max pain

Spot (delayed)$130.56
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$145+11.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$11.88±9.1% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.7212K puts / 16K calls
Call wall$155largest call OI
Put wall$135largest put OI
IV3024.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$214Kper 1% move
Earnings · expectedThu, Oct 8usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Sep 25$132+1.1%3d
Fri, Oct 2$133+1.9%10d
Fri, Oct 9$136+4.2%17d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Oct 8)
Fri, Oct 16$135+3.4%24d
Fri, Oct 23$134+2.6%31d
Fri, Oct 30$137+4.9%38d
Fri, Nov 20$140+7.2%59d
Fri, Dec 18$145+11.1%87d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot14575106137168199230$125M$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 — 145 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot145751001251501752004K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PEP open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 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, Dec 18

spot14575100125150175200106106
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot7510613716819923057%19%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot75100125150175200+$643K$643K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99950.00140.02-0.00-0.02
0.98-0.001000.00230.03-0.01-0.03
0.97-0.001050.00400.04-0.01-0.04
0.95-0.011100.00720.07-0.01-0.07
0.90-0.011150.01230.11-0.02-0.13
0.82-0.021200.01870.16-0.03-0.22
0.71-0.031250.02480.21-0.03-0.33
0.57-0.031300.02840.24-0.03-0.47
0.43-0.031350.02840.24-0.03-0.60
0.30-0.031400.02500.22-0.03-0.72
0.20-0.021450.01990.18-0.02-0.82
0.13-0.021500.01450.13-0.01-0.89
0.08-0.011550.01000.09-0.01-0.93
0.05-0.011600.00680.07-0.01-0.95
0.03-0.011650.00470.05-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 29 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot75121129137145157.52K0
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

spot6511712813915018552K52K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 198K call contracts, 114K 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: PEP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk