Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 11:39 PM ET

PSIX max pain

Spot (delayed)$40
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$35-12.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.9±17.3% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.11167 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$50largest call OI
Put wall$40largest put OI
IV3079.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$63Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $22.5

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 21$40+0.0%6d
Fri, Sep 18$35-12.5%34d
Fri, Nov 20$35-12.5%97d
Fri, Feb 19$25-37.5%188d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot35152433425160$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 — 35 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot35152025354555494494
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PSIX 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

spot351520253545556969
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot152433425160217%64%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 68.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 22.5152025354555+$24K$24K
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
1.00-0.00150.00080.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0117.50.00150.00-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.01200.00260.01-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.0122.50.00430.01-0.01-0.03
0.96-0.01250.00700.01-0.01-0.04
0.90-0.03300.01630.02-0.03-0.10
0.77-0.04350.02980.04-0.04-0.23
0.58-0.06400.03930.05-0.06-0.42
0.40-0.06450.03820.05-0.06-0.61
0.26-0.05500.03070.04-0.05-0.75
0.17-0.04550.02300.03-0.04-0.84
0.12-0.03600.01690.03-0.03-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot17.535608511013510K0
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

spot1530558010513010K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 22K call contracts, 6K 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: PSIX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk