Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 8:47 PM ET

SID max pain

Spot (delayed)$0.9
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$1+10.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.35±38.7% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.293K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$1largest call OI
Put wall$1largest put OI
IV3076.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$5Kper 1% move

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$1+10.7%3d
Fri, Sep 18$1+10.7%31d
Fri, Dec 18$1+10.7%122d
Fri, Mar 19$0.5-44.7%213d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1112345$4M$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 — 1 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot10.511.522.556K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SID open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 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, Dec 18

spot10.511.522.5555
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot111223214%74%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 79.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot0.511.522.5+$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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.900.000.50.30700.000.00-0.11
0.51-0.0011.06170.00-0.00-0.51
0.230.001.50.69030.000.00-0.80
0.150.0020.44650.000.00-0.89
0.120.002.50.33240.000.00-0.93
0.070.0050.16420.000.00-0.99

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

spot0.511.522.5518K0
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

spot0.51.52.57.518K18K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 38K 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: SID workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk