Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 8:14 PM ET

SLN max pain

Spot (delayed)$13.75
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$5-63.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.38±24.5% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.181K puts / 8K calls
Call wall$15largest call OI
Put wall$12.5largest put OI
IV3069.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$67Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $12.5

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 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$10-27.3%7d
Fri, Sep 18$15+9.1%35d
Fri, Oct 16$5-63.6%63d
Fri, Jan 15$12.5-9.1%154d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot53711151923$9M$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 — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot52.57.512.517.522.54K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SLN open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot52.57.512.517.522.51010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot81114172023213%63%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 71.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 12.52.57.512.517.522.5+$77K$77K
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.012.50.00300.00-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.0150.00870.01-0.01-0.04
0.93-0.017.50.01970.01-0.01-0.08
0.86-0.01100.04210.01-0.01-0.15
0.71-0.0112.50.08200.02-0.01-0.31
0.49-0.01150.09100.02-0.01-0.53
0.36-0.0217.50.07100.02-0.02-0.67
0.29-0.02200.05620.02-0.02-0.74
0.25-0.0222.50.04640.02-0.02-0.78

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

spot2.57.512.517.522.511K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.53012K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 27K call contracts, 14K 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: SLN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk