Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 2:20 PM ET

UGL max pain

Spot (delayed)$51.37
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$52+1.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.7±15.0% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.392K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$60largest call OI
Put wall$54largest put OI
IV3042.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$123Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $30

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$45-12.4%5d
Fri, Sep 18$45-12.4%33d
Fri, Oct 16$52+1.2%61d
Fri, Dec 18$45-12.4%124d
Fri, Jan 15$45-12.4%152d
Thu, Jun 17$45-12.4%305d
Fri, Jan 21$70+36.3%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot522543617997115$21M$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 — 52 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot52254353637390486486
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UGL 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

spot522543536373906262
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot254361799711595%42%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 45.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 30254353637390+$46K$46K
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
0.82-0.02440.02590.06-0.02-0.18
0.79-0.02450.02890.06-0.02-0.21
0.76-0.02460.03180.07-0.02-0.24
0.73-0.03470.03450.07-0.03-0.28
0.69-0.03480.03700.07-0.03-0.31
0.65-0.03490.03910.08-0.03-0.35
0.61-0.03500.04070.08-0.03-0.40
0.57-0.03510.04180.08-0.03-0.44
0.53-0.03520.04230.09-0.03-0.48
0.48-0.03530.04220.09-0.03-0.52
0.45-0.03540.04170.08-0.03-0.56
0.41-0.03550.04070.08-0.03-0.60
0.37-0.03560.03930.08-0.03-0.64
0.34-0.03570.03770.08-0.03-0.67
0.31-0.03580.03590.07-0.03-0.70

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 56 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2545546372811K0
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

spot25374961731008K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 32K call contracts, 21K 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: UGL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk