Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 6:20 AM ET

RGC max pain

Spot (delayed)$5.39
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$17.5+224.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.23±59.9% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.61657 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$35largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV30179.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$350per 1% move

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$5-7.2%6d
Fri, Sep 18$17.5+224.7%34d
Fri, Dec 18$12.5+131.9%125d
Fri, Mar 19$2.5-53.6%216d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot17.531426374960$3M$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 — 17.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot17.52.51017.5254055445445
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RGC 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

spot17.52.51017.52540552020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot51627384960801%155%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 262.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot2.51017.5254055+$611$611
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
0.92-0.012.50.03820.00-0.01-0.08
0.66-0.0250.12110.01-0.02-0.33
0.41-0.027.50.11420.01-0.02-0.58
0.29-0.02100.09060.01-0.02-0.70
0.22-0.0212.50.07330.01-0.02-0.77
0.18-0.01150.06100.00-0.02-0.81
0.15-0.0117.50.05190.00-0.01-0.84
0.13-0.01200.04500.00-0.01-0.87
0.11-0.0122.50.03960.00-0.01-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 9 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

spot2.51017.52540556010
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

spot2.51017.52540552K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 4K 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: RGC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk