Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 12:57 PM ET

SA max pain

Spot (delayed)$32.17
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$27-16.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.83±18.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.141K puts / 11K calls
Call wall$34largest call OI
Put wall$27largest put OI
IV3067.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$544Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $18

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$27-16.1%7d
Fri, Sep 18$27-16.1%35d
Fri, Nov 20$20-37.8%98d
Fri, Jan 15$23-28.5%154d
Fri, Feb 19$23-28.5%189d
Fri, Jan 21$15-53.4%525d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot27152025293439$6M$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 — 27 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot271520242832366K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SA 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

spot271520242832364545
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot152025293439155%50%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 72.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 18152024283236+$366K$366K
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
0.90-0.01250.02510.02-0.02-0.10
0.86-0.02260.03110.02-0.02-0.13
0.82-0.02270.03720.03-0.02-0.17
0.78-0.03280.04310.03-0.03-0.22
0.73-0.03290.04830.03-0.03-0.27
0.67-0.03300.05250.04-0.03-0.33
0.61-0.04310.05550.04-0.04-0.39
0.56-0.04320.05720.04-0.04-0.44
0.50-0.04330.05750.04-0.04-0.50
0.45-0.04340.05670.04-0.04-0.55
0.40-0.04350.05490.04-0.04-0.60
0.35-0.04360.05230.04-0.04-0.65
0.31-0.03370.04920.04-0.03-0.70
0.27-0.03380.04580.03-0.03-0.73
0.23-0.03390.04220.03-0.03-0.77

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

spot1521263136458K0
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

spot1521263136428K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 44K call contracts, 6K 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: SA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk