Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 5:14 AM ET

TLN max pain

Spot (delayed)$312.74
Max pain · Fri, Oct 9$305-2.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$35.3±11.3% by Fri, Oct 9
Put/Call OI1.77145 puts / 82 calls
Call wall$305largest call OI
Put wall$235largest put OI
IV3050.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $230

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 18$360+15.1%5d
Fri, Sep 25$310-0.9%12d
Fri, Oct 2$285-8.9%19d
Fri, Oct 9$305-2.5%26d
Fri, Oct 16$340+8.7%33d
Fri, Oct 23$300-4.1%40d
Fri, Oct 30$310-0.9%47d
Fri, Nov 20$300-4.1%68d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot305220268316364412460$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 — 305 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spot3052202502853153454605050
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TLN open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 9.

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 9

spot30522025028531534546055
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spot22026831636441246091%49%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 50.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spotflip 230220250285315345460+$15K$15K
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 9

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.80-0.232800.00600.24-0.23-0.20
0.77-0.252850.00670.26-0.25-0.23
0.73-0.262900.00730.28-0.27-0.27
0.69-0.282950.00780.30-0.28-0.31
0.65-0.293000.00830.32-0.30-0.35
0.61-0.303050.00870.33-0.31-0.39
0.56-0.313100.00900.34-0.31-0.44
0.52-0.313150.00910.35-0.32-0.48
0.47-0.313200.00910.34-0.32-0.53
0.43-0.313250.00900.34-0.31-0.57
0.39-0.303300.00880.33-0.30-0.62
0.35-0.293350.00850.32-0.29-0.66
0.31-0.283400.00810.31-0.28-0.70
0.28-0.263450.00760.29-0.27-0.73
0.24-0.243500.00710.27-0.25-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 31 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2102953303804405401K0
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

spot16027034042049062010K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 68K call contracts, 43K 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: TLN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk