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

SLDP max pain

Spot (delayed)$2.39
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$3+25.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.13±47.2% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.243K puts / 11K calls
Call wall$5largest call OI
Put wall$3largest put OI
IV3090.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$7Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $1

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$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

spot313691215$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 — 3 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot30.523.55102K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SLDP open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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 15

spot30.523.551022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot13691215308%81%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 90.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 10.523.5510+$2K$2K
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 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.970.000.50.02230.00-0.00-0.03
0.93-0.0010.06630.00-0.00-0.07
0.85-0.001.50.13930.00-0.00-0.15
0.74-0.0020.21980.01-0.00-0.27
0.61-0.002.50.26150.01-0.00-0.40
0.50-0.0030.26370.01-0.00-0.51
0.41-0.003.50.24850.01-0.00-0.60
0.35-0.0040.22830.01-0.00-0.67
0.30-0.004.50.20800.01-0.00-0.72
0.26-0.0050.18930.01-0.00-0.76
0.23-0.005.50.17250.01-0.00-0.80
0.14-0.007.50.12230.00-0.00-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. 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