Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 11:38 PM ET

SG max pain

Spot (delayed)$6.2
Max pain · Fri, Sep 11$5.5-11.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.03±16.5% by Fri, Sep 11
Put/Call OI0.34160 puts / 477 calls
Call wall$6.5largest call OI
Put wall$4.5largest put OI
IV3073.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $4

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$6-3.2%4d
Fri, Aug 28$6.5+4.8%11d
Fri, Sep 4$6-3.2%18d
Fri, Sep 11$5.5-11.3%25d
Fri, Sep 18$6-3.2%32d
Fri, Sep 25$5.5-11.3%39d
Fri, Oct 2$8.5+37.1%46d
Fri, Oct 16$7+12.9%60d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot5.51246810$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 — 5.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot5.50.53579221221
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SG open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 11.

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 11

spot5.50.535796767
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spot3467910272%67%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 69.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 11

spotflip 434.567.59+$3K$3K
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 11

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.002.50.01230.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0030.02010.00-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.003.50.03290.00-0.00-0.03
0.95-0.0040.05420.00-0.00-0.05
0.92-0.004.50.08970.00-0.00-0.08
0.86-0.0150.14670.00-0.01-0.14
0.77-0.015.50.22470.01-0.01-0.23
0.64-0.0160.29340.01-0.01-0.37
0.48-0.016.50.30850.01-0.01-0.52
0.35-0.0170.27530.01-0.01-0.65
0.26-0.017.50.22670.01-0.01-0.75
0.19-0.0180.18130.01-0.01-0.81
0.15-0.018.50.14420.00-0.01-0.86
0.11-0.0190.11510.00-0.01-0.89
0.09-0.019.50.09260.00-0.01-0.92

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot0.53.56.59.512.5184K0
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

spot0.559.514284747K47K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 180K call contracts, 60K 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: SG workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk