Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 19, 4:28 PM ET

SPCX max pain

Spot (delayed)$140.08
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$135-3.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$22.38±16.0% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI3.4339K puts / 11K calls
Call wall$220largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3063.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2.7Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $50

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$140-0.1%2d
Fri, Aug 28$130-7.2%9d
Fri, Sep 4$126-10.1%16d
Fri, Sep 11$130-7.2%23d
Fri, Sep 18$150+7.1%30d
Fri, Sep 25$135-3.6%37d
Fri, Oct 2$145+3.5%44d
Fri, Oct 16$135-3.6%58d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot13580110140170200230$113M$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 — 135 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot1358010812013314918512K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPCX open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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 25

spot13580108120133149185316316
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot80110140170200230102%45%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 62.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spotflip 5080108120133149185+$755K$755K
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 25

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.76-0.121240.01080.14-0.12-0.24
0.75-0.121250.01110.14-0.12-0.25
0.71-0.131280.01200.15-0.13-0.29
0.69-0.131300.01250.16-0.14-0.31
0.65-0.141330.01310.17-0.14-0.35
0.63-0.141340.01330.17-0.14-0.37
0.62-0.141350.01350.17-0.14-0.38
0.55-0.151400.01400.18-0.15-0.45
0.54-0.151410.01400.18-0.15-0.47
0.52-0.151420.01400.18-0.15-0.48
0.48-0.151450.01400.18-0.15-0.52
0.44-0.151480.01380.18-0.15-0.56
0.43-0.151490.01370.18-0.15-0.57
0.42-0.151500.01360.17-0.15-0.59
0.36-0.141550.01290.17-0.14-0.65

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 47 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot50103119134148187.564K0
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

spot1075120160215280199K199K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2.2M call contracts, 2.4M 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: SPCX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk