Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 7:20 AM ET

TMDX max pain

Spot (delayed)$88.01
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$80-9.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$11.65±13.2% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.961K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$85largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3050.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$145Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $85

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$80-9.1%5d
Fri, Sep 18$80-9.1%33d
Fri, Oct 16$80-9.1%61d
Fri, Dec 18$90+2.3%124d
Fri, Jan 15$65-26.1%152d
Fri, Jan 21$65-26.1%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8045607590105120$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 — 80 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot8045607590105120498498
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TMDX 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

spot80456075901051201111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot45607590105120120%47%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 52.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 8545607590105120+$54K$54K
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
0.98-0.02550.00230.01-0.02-0.02
0.97-0.02600.00370.02-0.02-0.04
0.95-0.03650.00600.03-0.03-0.06
0.91-0.04700.00940.05-0.04-0.09
0.85-0.05750.01440.06-0.05-0.15
0.77-0.07800.02040.09-0.07-0.24
0.65-0.08850.02600.10-0.08-0.35
0.51-0.08900.02890.11-0.08-0.50
0.37-0.07950.02770.10-0.08-0.64
0.26-0.061000.02340.09-0.07-0.76
0.17-0.051050.01820.07-0.05-0.84
0.12-0.041100.01350.05-0.04-0.91
0.08-0.031150.00980.04-0.03-0.95
0.05-0.021200.00700.03-0.02-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3565951251551854K0
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

spot30651001351702107K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 35K call contracts, 26K 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: TMDX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk