Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 10:23 PM ET

UDN max pain

Spot (delayed)$18.21
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$14-23.1% vs spot
Put/Call OI0.001 puts / 10K calls
Call wall$19largest call OI
Put wall$19largest put OI
IV3012.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$630Kper 1% move

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$17-6.6%3d
Fri, Sep 18$16-12.1%31d
Fri, Dec 18$14-23.1%122d
Fri, Mar 19$18-1.2%213d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot14141517182021$1M$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 — 14 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot141417181920214K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UDN open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 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, Dec 18

spot141417181920212020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot14151718202155%9%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 14.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot141718192021+$401K$401K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.89-0.00140.04740.02-0.00-0.11
0.75-0.00170.17270.03-0.00-0.25
0.56-0.00180.32740.04-0.00-0.43
0.23-0.00190.27690.03-0.00-0.75
0.11-0.00200.13360.02-0.00-0.87
0.07-0.00210.07410.01-0.00-0.92

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

spot81619222616K0
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

spot8121620242816K16K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 30K call contracts, 29 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: UDN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk