Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 3:37 AM ET

RVTY max pain

Spot (delayed)$117.5
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$100-14.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$10.48±8.9% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.39316 puts / 806 calls
Call wall$105largest call OI
Put wall$100largest put OI
IV3035.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$153Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $105

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$115-2.1%6d
Fri, Sep 18$100-14.9%34d
Fri, Dec 18$105-10.6%125d
Fri, Mar 19$75-36.2%216d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot100456993117141165$5M$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot100456585105125145594594
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RVTY 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

spot10045658510512514522
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot557799121143165129%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 105456585105125145+$136K$136K
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
0.96-0.02800.00300.03-0.03-0.04
0.95-0.02850.00410.04-0.03-0.05
0.93-0.03900.00580.05-0.04-0.07
0.91-0.04950.00810.06-0.04-0.09
0.87-0.051000.01160.08-0.05-0.13
0.81-0.061050.01660.10-0.06-0.18
0.73-0.061100.02290.12-0.07-0.27
0.60-0.071150.02900.14-0.07-0.40
0.45-0.071200.03090.15-0.07-0.55
0.31-0.061250.02700.13-0.06-0.69
0.21-0.061300.02110.11-0.05-0.79
0.15-0.051350.01580.09-0.04-0.85
0.11-0.041400.01180.07-0.03-0.89
0.08-0.031450.00900.06-0.03-0.92
0.06-0.031500.00700.05-0.02-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 24 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot65901101301506240
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

spot457095120145170624624
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 466 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: RVTY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk