Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 3:00 PM ET

SLDP max pain

Spot (delayed)$2.39
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$1.5-37.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.55±23.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.1096 puts / 984 calls
Call wall$3largest call OI
Put wall$2largest put OI
IV3090.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$2.5+4.8%8d
Fri, Sep 18$1.5-37.1%36d
Fri, Nov 20$3+25.8%99d
Fri, Jan 15$3+25.8%155d
Fri, Feb 19$0.5-79.0%190d
Fri, Jan 21$2-16.1%526d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1.5112345$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 — 1.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1.50.51.52.53.54.5513513
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SLDP open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 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, Sep 18

spot1.50.51.52.53.54.533
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot233445172%74%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 88.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot0.51.52.53.54.5+$1K$1K
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 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.98-0.000.50.02080.00-0.00-0.02
0.95-0.0010.06490.00-0.00-0.05
0.90-0.001.50.16850.00-0.00-0.10
0.76-0.0020.40050.00-0.00-0.24
0.49-0.002.50.58760.00-0.00-0.51
0.28-0.0030.45740.00-0.00-0.72
0.17-0.003.50.31210.00-0.00-0.83
0.11-0.0040.21740.00-0.00-0.89
0.08-0.004.50.15710.00-0.00-0.92

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

spot0.523.55102K0
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

spot0.523.55105K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 32K call contracts, 8K 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: SLDP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk