Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 28, 11:56 PM ET

SCHW max pain

Spot (delayed)$110.15
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$100-9.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.98±7.2% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.7517K puts / 23K calls
Call wall$115largest call OI
Put wall$87.5largest put OI
IV3023.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$5.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $65

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 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 4$110-0.1%6d
Fri, Sep 11$108-2.0%13d
Fri, Sep 18$105-4.7%20d
Fri, Sep 25$108-2.0%27d
Fri, Oct 2$114+3.5%34d
Fri, Oct 9$105-4.7%41d
Fri, Oct 16$100-9.2%48d
Fri, Nov 20$115+4.4%83d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot100506886104122140$74M$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, Oct 16

spot100507082.592.51051258K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SCHW open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot100507082.592.5105125504504
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot50688610412214096%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 6555758595110130+$3.4M$3.4M
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.0187.50.00470.03-0.01-0.03
0.96-0.01900.00630.04-0.01-0.04
0.95-0.0192.50.00850.05-0.01-0.06
0.93-0.02950.01150.06-0.02-0.08
0.90-0.0297.50.01530.07-0.02-0.10
0.86-0.031000.02010.09-0.03-0.14
0.74-0.041050.03140.13-0.04-0.27
0.56-0.041100.03960.16-0.04-0.46
0.36-0.041150.03800.15-0.04-0.66
0.21-0.031200.02860.12-0.03-0.83
0.11-0.021250.01820.08-0.02-0.94
0.06-0.011300.01050.05-0.01-0.99
0.03-0.011350.00570.030.00-1.00
0.01-0.001400.00300.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 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

spot559010010811612421K0
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

spot32.5658910011313051K51K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 248K call contracts, 207K 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: SCHW workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk