Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 5:21 AM ET

SAR max pain

Spot (delayed)$18.9
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$25+32.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.62±13.9% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI4.585K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3027.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$172Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$20+5.8%5d
Fri, Sep 18$20+5.8%33d
Fri, Nov 20$25+32.3%96d
Fri, Feb 19$30+58.7%187d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot25101418222630$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 — 25 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot25101520253K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SAR open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot25101520252020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot13162023273081%24%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot10152025+$113K$113K
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00100.00060.01-0.00-0.04
1.000.0012.50.00680.00-0.00-0.08
0.97-0.00150.04970.00-0.01-0.15
0.79-0.0117.50.23660.02-0.01-0.36
0.24-0.00200.15000.03-0.00-0.74
0.10-0.0022.50.06070.02-0.00-0.86
0.06-0.00250.03330.01-0.00-0.90
0.03-0.00300.01520.01-0.00-0.93

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

spot1517.52022.525301K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.5303K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K 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: SAR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk