Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 6:50 AM ET

UL max pain

Spot (delayed)$62.37
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$62.5+0.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.98±9.6% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.5311K puts / 7K calls
Call wall$62.5largest call OI
Put wall$55largest put OI
IV3019.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$72Kper 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$62.5+0.2%6d
Fri, Aug 28$63+1.0%13d
Fri, Sep 4$65+4.2%20d
Fri, Sep 11$65+4.2%27d
Fri, Sep 18$65+4.2%34d
Fri, Sep 25$60-3.8%41d
Fri, Nov 20$57.5-7.8%97d
Fri, Dec 18$62.5+0.2%125d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot62.5304356698295$28M$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 — 62.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot62.53040506070802K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UL 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

spot62.530405060708022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot30435669829567%18%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 20.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot304050607080+$281K$281K
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
0.97-0.00450.00580.02-0.00-0.04
0.96-0.0047.50.00870.03-0.01-0.06
0.93-0.00500.01300.05-0.01-0.08
0.90-0.0152.50.01900.07-0.01-0.12
0.85-0.01550.02700.09-0.01-0.17
0.77-0.0157.50.03640.11-0.01-0.25
0.67-0.01600.04520.13-0.01-0.35
0.55-0.0162.50.05060.14-0.01-0.47
0.42-0.01650.05050.14-0.01-0.60
0.31-0.0167.50.04530.13-0.01-0.71
0.22-0.01700.03740.11-0.01-0.80
0.15-0.0172.50.02910.09-0.01-0.87
0.10-0.01750.02180.07-0.01-0.94
0.07-0.0077.50.01590.05-0.01-0.99
0.05-0.00800.01150.04-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 24 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot57.562.5677177.52K0
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

spot305057.56371787K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 41K call contracts, 35K 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: UL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk