Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 5:30 AM ET

SGML max pain

Spot (delayed)$11.93
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$13+9.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.55±29.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.383K puts / 7K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3092.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$27Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $15

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, Aug 21$12+0.6%4d
Fri, Sep 18$11-7.8%32d
Fri, Oct 16$13+9.0%60d
Fri, Jan 15$10-16.2%151d
Fri, Jan 21$10-16.2%522d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1351117222834$10M$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 — 13 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot13510152025303K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SGML 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

spot1351015202530525525
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot51117222834171%78%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 90.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 1551015202530+$17K$17K
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
0.96-0.0050.01170.00-0.00-0.03
0.94-0.0160.01840.01-0.01-0.05
0.92-0.0170.02770.01-0.01-0.08
0.87-0.0180.03980.01-0.01-0.12
0.81-0.0190.05390.01-0.01-0.18
0.74-0.01100.06780.02-0.01-0.25
0.66-0.01110.07900.02-0.01-0.34
0.57-0.01120.08560.02-0.01-0.42
0.49-0.01130.08720.02-0.01-0.51
0.41-0.01140.08470.02-0.01-0.58
0.35-0.01150.07960.02-0.01-0.65
0.29-0.01160.07320.02-0.01-0.70
0.25-0.01170.06630.02-0.01-0.75
0.21-0.01180.05940.01-0.01-0.79
0.18-0.01190.05300.01-0.01-0.82

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 30 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot510152025306K0
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

spot17131925317K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 32K call contracts, 16K 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: SGML workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk