Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 11:49 PM ET

SII max pain

Spot (delayed)$117.74
Max pain · Fri, Jan 21$100-15.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$55±46.7% by Fri, Jan 21
Put/Call OI1.14547 puts / 480 calls
Call wall$190largest call OI
Put wall$100largest put OI
IV3043.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $100

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$110-6.6%8d
Fri, Sep 18$115-2.3%36d
Fri, Nov 20$130+10.4%99d
Fri, Jan 15$110-6.6%155d
Fri, Feb 19$130+10.4%190d
Fri, Mar 19$120+1.9%218d
Fri, Jan 21$100-15.1%526d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1006098136174212250$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot1006090125150180220502502
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SII open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 21.

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, Jan 21

spot100609012515018022011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot609813617421225053%48%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 50.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spotflip 1006090125150180220+$32K$32K
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, Jan 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.89-0.01700.00270.27-0.01-0.12
0.87-0.01750.00300.30-0.01-0.14
0.85-0.01800.00340.34-0.02-0.16
0.80-0.01900.00400.40-0.02-0.21
0.75-0.021000.00460.45-0.02-0.27
0.69-0.021100.00510.49-0.02-0.32
0.67-0.021150.00530.51-0.02-0.35
0.64-0.021200.00540.52-0.02-0.38
0.62-0.021250.00560.53-0.02-0.41
0.59-0.021300.00570.54-0.02-0.44
0.56-0.021350.00580.55-0.02-0.46
0.54-0.021400.00580.55-0.02-0.49
0.52-0.021450.00580.55-0.02-0.52
0.49-0.021500.00590.55-0.02-0.54
0.47-0.021550.00580.55-0.02-0.57

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 28 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot501001301601902409340
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

spot5080110140170200975975
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5K call contracts, 2K 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: SII workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk