Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 6:43 PM ET

QQQ max pain

Spot (delayed)$714.89
Max pain · Thu, Sep 17$710-0.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$11.93±1.7% by Thu, Sep 17
Put/Call OI1.8021K puts / 12K calls
Call wall$725largest call OI
Put wall$690largest put OI
Net GEX+$17.8Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $726

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Mon, Sep 14$711-0.5%2d
Tue, Sep 15$715+0.0%3d
Wed, Sep 16$710-0.7%4d
Thu, Sep 17$710-0.7%5d
Fri, Sep 18$700-2.1%6d
Mon, Sep 21$714-0.1%9d
Tue, Sep 22$720+0.7%10d
Wed, Sep 23$715+0.0%11d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot710510563616669722775$327M$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 — 710 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spot7105106586797027127302K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)QQQ open contracts per strike for Thu, Sep 17.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-102026-09-11

spot510659680704715738+1K1K
Net contracts opened (up, green) or closed (down, red) per strike since the previous snapshot — where the walls are building and where they’re unwinding. Biggest moves: 725 +1K · 710 +881 · 690 +813 · 726 +718

Volume by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spot7105106586797027127306K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spot57061165269373477564%13%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 16.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spotflip 726530659680703713735+$18.6M$18.6M
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 · Thu, Sep 17

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.67-0.507080.02230.33-0.50-0.33
0.65-0.517090.02300.34-0.51-0.35
0.63-0.527100.02380.35-0.52-0.37
0.61-0.527110.02450.35-0.52-0.40
0.58-0.527120.02510.36-0.53-0.42
0.56-0.527130.02570.36-0.53-0.45
0.53-0.527140.02610.36-0.53-0.47
0.51-0.527150.02650.37-0.52-0.50
0.48-0.517160.02680.37-0.52-0.53
0.37-0.467200.02650.35-0.47-0.64
0.31-0.427220.02560.33-0.43-0.69
0.23-0.347250.02290.28-0.35-0.78
0.21-0.327260.02170.27-0.32-0.80
0.18-0.297270.02040.25-0.29-0.82
0.12-0.217300.01610.19-0.21-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot58067970271372473915K0
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.

Max pain history — nearest expiry vs price

07-2808-0508-1308-2108-3109-08732.65660.09
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot350560630700765860381K381K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5.0M call contracts, 6.9M 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: QQQ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk