Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 13, 11:47 AM ET

TTE max pain

Spot (delayed)$91.89
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$87.5-4.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.08±2.3% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.463K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$95largest call OI
Put wall$82.5largest put OI
Net GEX+$3.8Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $90

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Sep 18$87.5-4.8%5d
Fri, Oct 16$87.5-4.8%33d
Fri, Nov 20$87.5-4.8%68d
Fri, Dec 18$80-12.9%96d
Fri, Jan 15$67.5-26.5%124d
Fri, Feb 19$87.5-4.8%159d
Thu, Jun 17$77.5-15.7%277d
Fri, Dec 17$80-12.9%460d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot87.55061728394105$8M$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 — 87.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot87.5507077.58592.51003K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TTE 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

spot87.5507077.58592.51001212
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot7883899410010570%15%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 19.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 907580859095100+$1.9M$1.9M
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
1.000.00750.00010.000.00
1.000.0077.50.00020.000.000.00
1.00-0.00800.00080.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.0082.50.00310.00-0.00-0.00
0.98-0.01850.01260.01-0.01-0.02
0.92-0.0387.50.04490.02-0.03-0.08
0.74-0.07900.10470.04-0.07-0.26
0.43-0.0992.50.12450.05-0.09-0.57
0.19-0.06950.08050.04-0.06-0.82
0.07-0.0397.50.03610.02-0.03-0.94
0.02-0.011000.01350.01-0.01-0.98
0.00-0.001050.00160.00-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 17 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot5077.587.597.51151353K0
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

spot27.54562.58097.51305K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 31K call contracts, 27K 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: TTE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk