Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 11:43 PM ET

TRI max pain

Spot (delayed)$103.66
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$85-18.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$15.25±14.7% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.70754 puts / 444 calls
Call wall$90largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3046.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$42Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $90

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$100-3.5%4d
Fri, Sep 18$105+1.3%32d
Fri, Oct 16$85-18.0%60d
Fri, Dec 18$90-13.2%123d
Fri, Jan 15$80-22.8%151d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot85456483102121140$2M$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 — 85 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot85456585105125465465
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TRI 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

spot8545658510512511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot45648310212114097%41%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 44.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 90456585105125+$22K$22K
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
0.96-0.02700.00370.04-0.02-0.04
0.93-0.03750.00540.06-0.03-0.07
0.90-0.03800.00770.08-0.03-0.10
0.85-0.04850.01060.10-0.04-0.15
0.79-0.05900.01380.12-0.05-0.21
0.71-0.06950.01700.15-0.06-0.29
0.61-0.061000.01940.16-0.06-0.39
0.51-0.061050.02060.17-0.06-0.49
0.41-0.061100.02030.17-0.06-0.59
0.33-0.061150.01880.15-0.06-0.69
0.25-0.051200.01640.14-0.05-0.77
0.19-0.041250.01380.12-0.04-0.83
0.14-0.031300.01130.10-0.04-0.88
0.10-0.031350.00900.08-0.03-0.92
0.08-0.021400.00710.06-0.02-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot6075901051201359780
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

spot4065901151403K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 4K call contracts, 11K 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: TRI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk