Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 3:44 AM ET

SOFI max pain

Spot (delayed)$17.3
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$18+4.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.01±11.6% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.5074K puts / 149K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3045.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $8
Earnings · expectedTue, Oct 27usually before the open

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Sep 18$18+4.0%6d
Fri, Sep 25$18+4.0%13d
Fri, Oct 2$18+4.0%20d
Fri, Oct 9$18+4.0%27d
Fri, Oct 16$18+4.0%34d
Fri, Oct 23$17.5+1.2%41d
Fri, Oct 30$17-1.7%48d← 1st expiry after earnings (Tue, Oct 27)
Fri, Nov 20$18+4.0%69d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1851117232935$198M$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 — 18 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot185101520253027K27K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SOFI open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-102026-09-11

spot51016202428+10K10K
Net contracts opened (up, green) or closed (down, red) per strike since the previous snapshot — where the walls are building and where they’re unwinding. Biggest moves: 19 +10K · 17 +1K · 20 +1K · 16 +704

Volume by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot18510152025307K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot51117232935172%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 46.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 851015202530+$775K$775K
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
0.99-0.00100.00410.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00110.00810.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.00120.01560.00-0.00-0.02
0.96-0.00130.02920.01-0.00-0.04
0.92-0.01140.05230.01-0.01-0.08
0.85-0.01150.08690.01-0.01-0.15
0.74-0.01160.12730.02-0.01-0.26
0.59-0.01170.15600.02-0.01-0.41
0.44-0.01180.15710.02-0.01-0.57
0.31-0.01190.13530.02-0.01-0.70
0.21-0.01200.10630.02-0.01-0.80
0.14-0.01210.08000.01-0.01-0.87
0.10-0.01220.05950.01-0.01-0.91
0.07-0.01230.04450.01-0.01-0.94
0.05-0.01240.03360.01-0.01-0.96

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 27 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot11015.5202540160K0
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.

Max pain history — nearest expiry vs price

07-2808-0508-1308-2108-3109-0819.1615.14
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot11015.5202534347K347K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2.6M call contracts, 1.3M 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: SOFI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk