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

TMDX max pain

Spot (delayed)$88.01
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$80-9.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$14.75±16.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.673K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3050.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$376Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $100

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$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

spot80356799131163195$43M$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, Oct 16

spot803565951251551853K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TMDX 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

spot803565951251551853030
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot356799131163195154%46%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 49.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 100356595125155185+$421K$421K
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
0.97-0.01550.00280.03-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.02600.00450.04-0.02-0.05
0.92-0.03650.00680.06-0.03-0.08
0.87-0.04700.00980.08-0.04-0.13
0.81-0.04750.01320.10-0.04-0.19
0.73-0.05800.01650.12-0.05-0.27
0.64-0.06850.01920.14-0.06-0.37
0.54-0.06900.02050.15-0.06-0.47
0.44-0.06950.02040.14-0.06-0.57
0.35-0.061000.01910.14-0.06-0.67
0.27-0.051050.01700.12-0.05-0.75
0.21-0.041100.01460.11-0.05-0.81
0.16-0.041150.01210.09-0.04-0.86
0.12-0.031200.01000.07-0.04-0.91
0.09-0.031250.00800.06-0.03-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 33 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