Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 2:23 PM ET

UMC max pain

Spot (delayed)$19.03
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$14-26.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.75±35.5% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.6520K puts / 31K calls
Call wall$10largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3063.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$126Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $10

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$21+10.4%6d
Fri, Sep 18$19-0.1%34d
Fri, Oct 16$18-5.4%62d
Fri, Jan 15$14-26.4%153d
Fri, Jan 21$17-10.6%524d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot141917253341$72M$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, Jan 15

spot1418152229368K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UMC open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot1418152229361717
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot1917253341237%65%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 69.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 101916233037+$76K$76K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.90-0.01120.02030.02-0.01-0.11
0.86-0.01130.02490.03-0.01-0.14
0.83-0.01140.02950.03-0.01-0.17
0.79-0.01150.03380.04-0.01-0.22
0.74-0.01160.03760.04-0.01-0.26
0.70-0.01170.04080.04-0.01-0.31
0.65-0.01180.04330.05-0.01-0.35
0.61-0.01190.04500.05-0.01-0.40
0.56-0.01200.04600.05-0.01-0.44
0.52-0.01210.04640.05-0.01-0.49
0.48-0.01220.04630.05-0.01-0.53
0.44-0.01230.04570.05-0.01-0.57
0.41-0.01240.04480.05-0.01-0.61
0.37-0.01250.04360.05-0.01-0.64
0.34-0.01260.04210.04-0.01-0.68

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 41 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot7131925313732K0
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

spot181522293639K39K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 160K call contracts, 72K 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: UMC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk