Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 11:40 PM ET

TK max pain

Spot (delayed)$12.47
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$9-27.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.68±13.4% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.11481 puts / 4K calls
Call wall$14largest call OI
Put wall$9largest put OI
IV3036.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$73Kper 1% move

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$10-19.8%4d
Fri, Sep 18$10-19.8%32d
Fri, Oct 16$9-27.8%60d
Fri, Jan 15$9-27.8%151d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot92610141822$4M$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 — 9 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot91.5911.51416.5192K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TK 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

spot91.5911.51416.5194040
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot71013161922158%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 40.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot6.51012.51517.521.5+$52K$52K
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
0.99-0.001.50.00120.00-0.00-0.00
0.97-0.006.50.01230.00-0.00-0.02
0.94-0.0090.04190.01-0.00-0.06
0.90-0.00100.07470.01-0.00-0.10
0.73-0.0111.50.17400.02-0.01-0.26
0.53-0.0112.50.21450.02-0.01-0.47
0.29-0.01140.15780.02-0.01-0.72
0.20-0.01150.11610.01-0.01-0.81
0.12-0.0016.50.07430.01-0.00-0.89
0.09-0.0017.50.05640.01-0.00-0.92
0.06-0.00190.03840.01-0.00-0.95
0.03-0.0021.50.02180.00-0.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1.5912.516.521.52K0
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

spot1.56.511.516.521.52K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5K call contracts, 808 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: TK workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk