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

STNG max pain

Spot (delayed)$76.15
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$75-1.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.65±12.7% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.392K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$82.5largest call OI
Put wall$70largest put OI
IV3036.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$670Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $75

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · 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, 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

spot7540577491108125$27M$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 — 75 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot75406072.5851001253K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)STNG open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot75406072.5851001251K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot4057749110812594%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 38.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 75406072.585100125+$455K$455K
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
0.97-0.01550.00790.02-0.01-0.04
0.92-0.02600.01220.05-0.02-0.08
0.88-0.0262.50.01480.06-0.02-0.11
0.84-0.02650.01850.08-0.02-0.16
0.79-0.0367.50.02290.09-0.03-0.21
0.72-0.03700.02710.11-0.03-0.28
0.65-0.0372.50.03050.12-0.03-0.35
0.57-0.04750.03260.13-0.04-0.43
0.49-0.0477.50.03300.13-0.04-0.52
0.41-0.04800.03190.12-0.04-0.60
0.34-0.0382.50.02970.12-0.03-0.67
0.28-0.03850.02690.11-0.03-0.73
0.23-0.0387.50.02370.10-0.03-0.78
0.18-0.03900.02060.09-0.03-0.83
0.15-0.0292.50.01770.07-0.02-0.86

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 26 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