Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 1:09 AM ET

SPB max pain

Spot (delayed)$89.93
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$80-11.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8±8.9% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.0940 puts / 459 calls
Call wall$85largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3034.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$109Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $85

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$85-5.5%6d
Fri, Sep 18$80-11.0%34d
Fri, Oct 16$75-16.6%62d
Fri, Dec 18$50-44.4%125d
Fri, Jan 15$55-38.8%153d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8040557085100115$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 — 80 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot8040607590105437437
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPB 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

spot804060759010511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot55677991103115113%32%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 8540607590105+$109K$109K
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
0.97-0.03550.00280.02-0.03-0.03
0.96-0.03600.00400.03-0.03-0.04
0.94-0.04650.00590.03-0.04-0.06
0.92-0.04700.00880.04-0.04-0.09
0.88-0.04750.01330.06-0.05-0.13
0.82-0.05800.02040.07-0.05-0.19
0.71-0.06850.03100.10-0.06-0.30
0.53-0.06900.04150.11-0.06-0.48
0.33-0.05950.03880.10-0.05-0.69
0.20-0.041000.02750.08-0.04-0.83
0.13-0.041050.01870.06-0.04-0.90
0.10-0.031100.01320.05-0.03-0.93
0.07-0.031150.00970.04-0.03-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 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

spot5575901051201K0
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

spot355575951151K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 232 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: SPB workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk