Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 10:03 AM ET

STNG max pain

Spot (delayed)$76.15
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$77.5+1.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.93±9.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.47741 puts / 504 calls
Call wall$95largest call OI
Put wall$75largest put OI
IV3036.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$74Kper 1% move

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$77.5+1.8%8d
Fri, Sep 18$77.5+1.8%36d
Fri, Oct 16$75-1.5%64d
Fri, Jan 15$55-27.8%155d
Fri, Jan 21$57.5-24.5%526d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot77.56069788796105$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 — 77.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot77.56072.58090105287287
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)STNG 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

spot77.56072.5809010544
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot606978879610568%33%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot6072.58090105+$69K$69K
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
0.98-0.01600.00890.01-0.01-0.05
0.91-0.03650.02190.04-0.02-0.10
0.77-0.04700.03370.07-0.04-0.23
0.68-0.0472.50.04020.09-0.04-0.32
0.57-0.05750.04470.10-0.05-0.43
0.46-0.0577.50.04520.10-0.05-0.54
0.35-0.04800.04190.09-0.04-0.65
0.27-0.0482.50.03630.08-0.04-0.74
0.20-0.04850.03000.07-0.04-0.81
0.11-0.03900.01910.05-0.03-0.90
0.06-0.02950.01170.03-0.02-0.95
0.04-0.011000.00720.02-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot45657585951153K0
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

spot17.53552.57087.51153K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 15K 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: STNG workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk