Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 2:33 PM ET

TME max pain

Spot (delayed)$8.92
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$10+12.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.83±9.3% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI3.098K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$9largest call OI
Put wall$9largest put OI
IV3035.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$153Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $4

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$9+0.9%5d
Fri, Sep 18$10+12.1%33d
Fri, Oct 16$9+0.9%61d
Fri, Jan 15$8-10.3%152d
Fri, Jan 21$5-43.9%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1024791214$6M$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1025811144K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TME 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

spot102581114111111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot7810111314141%37%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 37.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 42581114+$86K$86K
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
0.99-0.0020.00400.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0030.00740.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0040.01290.00-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.0050.02290.00-0.00-0.03
0.95-0.0060.04350.00-0.00-0.05
0.91-0.0070.09240.00-0.00-0.09
0.81-0.0180.22700.01-0.01-0.19
0.49-0.0190.40180.01-0.01-0.51
0.22-0.01100.24510.01-0.01-0.79
0.11-0.00110.13250.01-0.00-0.90
0.07-0.00120.07780.00-0.00-0.94
0.04-0.00130.04900.00-0.00-0.97
0.03-0.00140.03240.00-0.00-0.98

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

spot1591317227K0
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

spot161116213017K17K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 46K call contracts, 46K 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: TME workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk