Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 11:42 PM ET

PLAB max pain

Spot (delayed)$32.11
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$30-6.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.32±22.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.936K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$35largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV3077.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $17.5
Earnings · expectedWed, Aug 26usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 · 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$30-6.6%15d
Fri, Sep 18$30-6.6%43d← 1st expiry after earnings (Wed, Aug 26)
Fri, Dec 18$35+9.0%134d
Fri, Mar 19$25-22.1%225d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot30152739516375$19M$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 — 30 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot301522.53550653K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PLAB 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

spot301522.53550655656
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot152739516375141%74%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 84.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 17.51522.5355065+$85K$85K
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
0.99150.00220.00-0.00-0.01
0.9817.50.00480.01-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.00200.00970.01-0.01-0.04
0.91-0.0122.50.01700.02-0.02-0.09
0.84-0.02250.02570.03-0.03-0.16
0.65-0.04300.03970.04-0.04-0.35
0.45-0.04350.04230.04-0.04-0.56
0.28-0.04400.03570.04-0.03-0.73
0.16-0.03450.02610.03-0.02-0.85
0.09-0.02500.01740.02-0.01-0.93
0.05-0.01550.01090.01-0.97
0.03-0.01600.00660.01-0.02-1.00
0.01-0.00650.00390.00-0.03-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1522.53550654K0
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

spot1522.53550656K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 17K call contracts, 16K 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: PLAB workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk