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

TME max pain

Spot (delayed)$8.92
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$8-10.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.03±22.7% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.9820K puts / 20K calls
Call wall$7largest call OI
Put wall$8largest put OI
IV3035.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$69Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $3

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 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — 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

spot81815212835$45M$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 — 8 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot815913172710K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TME open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot8159131727200200
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot3916222935125%40%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 43.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 33711152235+$108K$108K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.000.0020.00200.000.00-0.00
0.990.0030.00540.000.00-0.01
0.98-0.0040.01260.00-0.00-0.02
0.96-0.0050.02660.01-0.00-0.04
0.91-0.0060.05120.01-0.00-0.09
0.84-0.0070.08900.01-0.00-0.17
0.72-0.0080.13190.02-0.00-0.29
0.57-0.0090.15860.02-0.00-0.45
0.42-0.00100.15600.02-0.00-0.60
0.30-0.00110.13490.02-0.00-0.73
0.22-0.00120.10980.02-0.00-0.82
0.17-0.00130.08780.01-0.00-0.88
0.13-0.00140.07020.01-0.00-0.93
0.10-0.00150.05660.01-0.00-0.96
0.08-0.00160.04610.01-0.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. 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