Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 3:55 AM ET

SBH max pain

Spot (delayed)$16.84
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$15-10.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.85±11.0% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.95211 puts / 221 calls
Call wall$17.5largest call OI
Put wall$12.5largest put OI
IV3045.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$6Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $15

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$15-10.9%9d
Fri, Sep 18$15-10.9%37d
Fri, Dec 18$15-10.9%128d
Fri, Mar 19$15-10.9%219d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1551015202530$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 — 15 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot15512.517.522.530131131
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SBH 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

spot15512.517.522.5301111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot101418222630143%17%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 40.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 1510152025+$6K$6K
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
1.0050.00050.000.00-0.00
0.99-0.00100.00740.00-0.00-0.01
0.96-0.0012.50.02810.00-0.00-0.04
0.81-0.01150.10850.01-0.01-0.19
0.44-0.0117.50.15400.02-0.01-0.56
0.18-0.01200.09200.01-0.01-0.82
0.08-0.0122.50.04560.01-0.01-0.92
0.04-0.00250.02260.00-0.00-0.97
0.01-0.00300.00620.000.00-1.00

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

spot2.5101520254960
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.5304K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 776 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: SBH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk