Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 9:46 PM ET

TEAM max pain

Spot (delayed)$157.19
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$155-1.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$30.2±19.2% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.633K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$165largest call OI
Put wall$170largest put OI
IV3057.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$527Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $125

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$105-33.2%4d
Fri, Aug 28$145-7.8%11d
Fri, Sep 4$135-14.1%18d
Fri, Sep 11$144-8.4%25d
Fri, Sep 18$130-17.3%32d
Fri, Sep 25$142-9.7%39d
Fri, Oct 2$162.5+3.4%46d
Fri, Oct 16$155-1.4%60d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1554580115150185220$29M$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 — 155 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot15545751051351651951K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TEAM 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

spot15545751051351651956161
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot4580115150185220213%56%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 59.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 1255080110140170200+$326K$326K
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
0.89-0.061200.00460.12-0.06-0.11
0.86-0.071250.00550.14-0.07-0.14
0.82-0.081300.00650.17-0.08-0.17
0.79-0.091350.00740.19-0.10-0.21
0.74-0.101400.00830.21-0.10-0.26
0.69-0.111450.00900.23-0.11-0.31
0.64-0.121500.00960.24-0.12-0.36
0.59-0.121550.01000.25-0.13-0.41
0.54-0.131600.01020.26-0.13-0.46
0.49-0.131650.01030.26-0.13-0.51
0.44-0.131700.01020.25-0.13-0.56
0.40-0.121750.01000.25-0.12-0.61
0.35-0.121800.00960.24-0.12-0.65
0.31-0.111850.00910.23-0.11-0.69
0.28-0.111900.00860.21-0.11-0.73

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 34 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot6091106120146167.55K0
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

spot307011015018525011K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 109K call contracts, 78K 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: TEAM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk