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

POET max pain

Spot (delayed)$9.14
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$7-23.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.33±25.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.376K puts / 16K calls
Call wall$7largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV30101.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$105Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $7

Event risk before this expiration: 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 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

spot7147111417$13M$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 — 7 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot71471013166K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)POET 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

spot7147101316216216
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot147111417320%99%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 103.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 7158111417+$44K$44K
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
1.000.0020.00230.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0030.00580.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0040.01350.00-0.00-0.02
0.95-0.0050.02870.00-0.01-0.05
0.90-0.0160.05500.01-0.01-0.10
0.81-0.0170.09030.01-0.01-0.19
0.69-0.0180.12200.01-0.01-0.31
0.56-0.0190.13720.01-0.01-0.45
0.43-0.01100.13450.01-0.01-0.57
0.33-0.01110.12100.01-0.01-0.68
0.25-0.01120.10340.01-0.01-0.76
0.19-0.01130.08600.01-0.01-0.82
0.14-0.01140.07040.01-0.01-0.87
0.11-0.01150.05730.01-0.01-0.90
0.08-0.01160.04650.00-0.01-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 17 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