Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 11:30 AM ET

POET max pain

Spot (delayed)$9.14
Max pain · Fri, Sep 11$9-1.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.16±23.6% by Fri, Sep 11
Put/Call OI0.60790 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$6largest call OI
Put wall$9largest put OI
IV30101.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $5.5

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 14$8-12.5%1d
Fri, Aug 21$8-12.5%8d
Fri, Aug 28$7-23.4%15d
Fri, Sep 4$7-23.4%22d
Fri, Sep 11$9-1.5%29d
Fri, Sep 18$7-23.4%36d
Fri, Sep 25$8-12.5%43d
Fri, Oct 16$8-12.5%64d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot9358111417$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 — 9 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot92.55.5810.513214214
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)POET open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 11.

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 11

spot92.55.5810.513350350
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot358111417378%82%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 105.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spotflip 5.52.55.57.59.511.514+$2K$2K
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 11

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.94-0.015.50.03950.00-0.01-0.06
0.91-0.0160.05470.00-0.01-0.09
0.87-0.016.50.07330.01-0.01-0.13
0.82-0.0170.09430.01-0.01-0.18
0.76-0.017.50.11540.01-0.01-0.24
0.69-0.0180.13370.01-0.01-0.31
0.62-0.028.50.14670.01-0.02-0.38
0.54-0.0290.15300.01-0.02-0.46
0.47-0.029.50.15290.01-0.02-0.53
0.40-0.02100.14770.01-0.02-0.60
0.34-0.0210.50.13890.01-0.02-0.66
0.29-0.01110.12800.01-0.01-0.71
0.25-0.0111.50.11640.01-0.01-0.76
0.21-0.01120.10470.01-0.01-0.79
0.18-0.0112.50.09350.01-0.01-0.83

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 25 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot15.58.511.514.52038K0
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

spot1610.5152433123K123K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 961K call contracts, 180K 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: POET workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk