Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 22, 1:56 AM ET

PG max pain

Spot (delayed)$146.08
Max pain · Fri, Oct 23$144-1.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.9±5.4% by Fri, Oct 23
Put/Call OI0.90955 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$155largest call OI
Put wall$140largest put OI
IV3020.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$144Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $155
Earnings · expectedFri, Oct 23usually before the open

Event risk before this expiration: 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 25$146-0.1%4d
Fri, Oct 2$145-0.7%11d
Fri, Oct 9$146-0.1%18d
Fri, Oct 16$145-0.7%25d
Fri, Oct 23$144-1.4%32d← 1st expiry after earnings (Fri, Oct 23)
Fri, Oct 30$143-2.1%39d
Fri, Nov 20$145-0.7%60d
Fri, Dec 18$145-0.7%88d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot144120130140150160170$2M$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 — 144 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot144120134139144149160340340
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PG open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 23.

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 23

spot144120134139144149160606606
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot12013014015016017045%19%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 21.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spotflip 155120134139144149160+$250K$250K
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 23

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.80-0.041390.02920.12-0.05-0.23
0.77-0.041400.03200.13-0.05-0.27
0.74-0.051410.03470.14-0.05-0.30
0.70-0.051420.03720.15-0.05-0.34
0.66-0.051430.03940.16-0.06-0.38
0.62-0.061440.04110.16-0.06-0.42
0.58-0.061450.04260.17-0.06-0.46
0.54-0.061460.04350.17-0.06-0.51
0.49-0.061470.04380.17-0.06-0.55
0.45-0.061480.04380.17-0.06-0.59
0.41-0.061490.04300.17-0.05-0.63
0.37-0.051500.04180.16-0.05-0.67
0.27-0.05152.50.03700.14-0.04-0.76
0.19-0.041550.03040.11-0.03-0.84
0.13-0.03157.50.02340.09-0.03-0.89

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

spot95137142147155167.56K0
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

spot70120137147167.520537K37K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 172K call contracts, 132K 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: PG workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk