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

QQQ max pain

Spot (delayed)$714.89
Max pain · Mon, Sep 21$714-0.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$14.63±2.0% by Mon, Sep 21
Put/Call OI0.758K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$735largest call OI
Put wall$720largest put OI
Net GEX+$24.3Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $727

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

spot714505562619676733790$132M$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 — 714 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Mon, Sep 21

spot7145055506857087187412K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)QQQ open contracts per strike for Mon, Sep 21.

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

spot505615690710730757+753753
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: 710 +753 · 717 +479 · 735 +314 · 730 +260

Volume by strike · Mon, Sep 21

spot7145055506857087187419K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Mon, Sep 21

spot54559464369274179060%12%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 15.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Mon, Sep 21

spotflip 727510615690709720745+$11.6M$11.6M
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 · Mon, Sep 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.65-0.377080.01920.44-0.37-0.36
0.63-0.387090.01970.44-0.38-0.38
0.61-0.387100.02020.45-0.38-0.40
0.59-0.387110.02070.46-0.38-0.42
0.57-0.387120.02110.46-0.38-0.44
0.55-0.387130.02150.47-0.38-0.46
0.53-0.387140.02190.47-0.37-0.48
0.51-0.377150.02220.47-0.37-0.50
0.46-0.367170.02260.47-0.36-0.55
0.44-0.367180.02260.47-0.35-0.57
0.39-0.347200.02250.46-0.34-0.62
0.28-0.287250.02070.40-0.27-0.73
0.17-0.207300.01670.31-0.19-0.83
0.10-0.127350.01140.21-0.12-0.91
0.07-0.107370.00940.17-0.09-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 54 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