Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 11:42 PM ET

SIMO max pain

Spot (delayed)$273
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$250-8.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$145.3±53.2% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.50407 puts / 817 calls
Call wall$370largest call OI
Put wall$320largest put OI
IV3080.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$61Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $135

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$250-8.4%3d
Fri, Sep 18$175-35.9%31d
Fri, Dec 18$200-26.7%122d
Fri, Mar 19$250-8.4%213d
Fri, Dec 17$110-59.7%486d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot250105174243312381450$11M$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 — 250 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot250105175220280350420250250
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SIMO open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot25010517522028035042022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot105174243312381450100%88%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 90.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spotflip 135105175220280350420+$41K$41K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.80-0.102000.00150.59-0.12-0.21
0.78-0.112100.00160.62-0.13-0.23
0.76-0.122200.00170.66-0.13-0.25
0.73-0.122300.00180.68-0.14-0.27
0.71-0.132400.00180.71-0.14-0.29
0.69-0.142500.00190.73-0.14-0.31
0.67-0.142600.00190.75-0.15-0.33
0.65-0.142700.00200.77-0.15-0.35
0.63-0.152800.00200.78-0.15-0.37
0.61-0.152900.00210.80-0.15-0.39
0.59-0.153000.00210.81-0.15-0.41
0.57-0.163100.00210.81-0.15-0.43
0.56-0.163200.00210.82-0.15-0.45
0.54-0.163300.00210.83-0.15-0.47
0.51-0.163500.00220.83-0.15-0.51

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 34 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot601151702503604706K0
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

spot601151702503604706K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 38K call contracts, 20K 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: SIMO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk