Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 1:17 PM ET

SATA max pain

Spot (delayed)$99.13
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$100+0.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.33±12.4% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI1.66761 puts / 458 calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$90largest put OI
IV3012.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$207Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $100

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 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$100+0.9%5d
Fri, Sep 18$95-4.2%33d
Fri, Oct 16$105+5.9%61d
Fri, Jan 15$100+0.9%152d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot10080869298104110$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot1008090100110379379
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SATA open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot1008090100110170170
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot8086929810411031%11%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 12.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 1008090100110+$288K$288K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.09800.01330.19-0.02-0.25
1.00-0.09850.01790.21-0.02-0.33
1.00-0.09900.02360.23-0.02-0.45
0.90-0.08950.10260.01-0.01-0.62
0.36-0.031000.08710.17-0.00-0.77
0.11-0.011050.02760.11-0.00-0.82
0.05-0.001100.01120.06-0.84

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

spot90951001051101K0
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

spot6075901051201351K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 4K 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: SATA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk