Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 6:31 AM ET

RRGB max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.14
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$5-50.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.48±14.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.401K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$7.5largest call OI
Put wall$2.5largest put OI
IV3072.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$26Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $7.5

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$7.5-26.0%5d
Fri, Sep 18$5-50.7%33d
Fri, Dec 18$5-50.7%124d
Fri, Mar 19$7.5-26.0%215d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot535791113$1M$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 — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot52.557.51012.52K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RRGB 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

spot52.557.51012.5500500
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot35791113221%67%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 72.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 7.52.557.51012.5+$12K$12K
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
1.00-0.002.50.00270.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0050.01770.00-0.00-0.03
0.89-0.017.50.07260.01-0.01-0.11
0.55-0.01100.18140.01-0.01-0.44
0.23-0.0112.50.11890.01-0.01-0.76

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

spot2.557.51012.5154K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.54K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 9K call contracts, 3K 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: RRGB workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk