Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 21, 11:49 PM ET

RUN max pain

Spot (delayed)$8.78
Max pain · Fri, Oct 23$11+25.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.53±17.4% by Fri, Oct 23
Put/Call OI1.31460 puts / 352 calls
Call wall$11largest call OI
Put wall$11largest put OI
IV3070.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $10

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$9+2.5%4d
Fri, Oct 2$9.5+8.2%11d
Fri, Oct 9$9+2.5%18d
Fri, Oct 16$9+2.5%25d
Fri, Oct 23$11+25.3%32d
Fri, Oct 30$10+13.9%39d
Fri, Nov 20$10+13.9%60d
Fri, Jan 15$13+48.1%116d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot11689111315$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 — 11 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot1168101214290290
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RUN open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 23.

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, Oct 23

spot1168101214146146
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot689111315128%65%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 72.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spotflip 1068101214+$2K$2K
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, Oct 23

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.0060.04680.00-0.00-0.05
0.87-0.0170.10420.01-0.01-0.13
0.72-0.0180.18070.01-0.01-0.28
0.51-0.0190.21760.01-0.01-0.49
0.32-0.01100.19180.01-0.01-0.69
0.19-0.01110.14010.01-0.01-0.82
0.11-0.01120.09300.01-0.01-0.91
0.06-0.00130.05920.00-0.00-0.95
0.04-0.00140.03690.00-0.00-0.98
0.03-0.0014.50.02910.00-0.00-0.99

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

spot58.51113.5162K0
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

spot171115212968K68K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 252K call contracts, 111K 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: RUN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk