Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 11:15 PM ET

UAN max pain

Spot (delayed)$135.88
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$120-11.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.55±4.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.35856 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$175largest call OI
Put wall$120largest put OI
Net GEX+$527Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $120

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$120-11.7%5d
Fri, Oct 16$130-4.3%33d
Fri, Nov 20$110-19.0%68d
Fri, Feb 19$125-8.0%159d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1206088116144172200$12M$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 — 120 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot12060851101351601901K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UAN 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

spot120608511013516019088
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot105124143162181200143%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 37.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 12080100120140160185+$182K$182K
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
1.00-0.011000.00070.00-0.01-0.00
0.99-0.011050.00130.00-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.031100.00250.01-0.03-0.01
0.98-0.041150.00500.01-0.04-0.02
0.95-0.071200.01010.02-0.07-0.05
0.89-0.121250.02050.04-0.12-0.11
0.76-0.181300.03770.06-0.18-0.24
0.54-0.231350.05060.07-0.23-0.46
0.30-0.211400.04280.07-0.21-0.69
0.16-0.151450.02720.05-0.15-0.84
0.09-0.111500.01600.03-0.11-0.91
0.05-0.071550.00950.02-0.07-0.95
0.03-0.051600.00590.01-0.05-0.97
0.02-0.041650.00370.01-0.04-0.98
0.01-0.031700.00250.01-0.03-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 28 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot65951201451701951K0
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

spot55801051301551801K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 6K call contracts, 3K 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: UAN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk