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

SOFI max pain

Spot (delayed)$17.3
Max pain · Fri, Oct 23$17.5+1.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.23±12.9% by Fri, Oct 23
Put/Call OI1.227K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$19largest call OI
Put wall$16largest put OI
IV3045.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$76Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $12
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

spot17.5101418222630$5M$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 — 17.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot17.5101416.51921.5242K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SOFI open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 23.

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

spot1215.51820.523+297297
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: 17 +297 · 16 +191 · 15 +184 · 18 +153

Volume by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot17.5101416.51921.524233233
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot10141822263089%47%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 47.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spotflip 12101416.51921.524+$71K$71K
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 23

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.91-0.01140.05460.01-0.01-0.09
0.87-0.0114.50.06960.01-0.01-0.13
0.83-0.01150.08630.01-0.01-0.17
0.78-0.0115.50.10350.02-0.01-0.22
0.72-0.01160.11950.02-0.01-0.28
0.66-0.0116.50.13260.02-0.01-0.34
0.59-0.01170.14130.02-0.01-0.41
0.52-0.0117.50.14470.02-0.01-0.49
0.45-0.01180.14280.02-0.01-0.56
0.38-0.0118.50.13640.02-0.01-0.62
0.32-0.01190.12690.02-0.01-0.68
0.27-0.0119.50.11560.02-0.01-0.73
0.23-0.01200.10370.02-0.01-0.78
0.19-0.0120.50.09180.02-0.01-0.82
0.16-0.01210.08060.01-0.01-0.85

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 28 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