Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 27, 6:50 AM ET

UNH max pain

Spot (delayed)$400.75
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$400-0.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$38.25±9.5% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.9216K puts / 18K calls
Call wall$410largest call OI
Put wall$340largest put OI
IV3028.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $440

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 28$400-0.2%1d
Fri, Sep 4$397.5-0.8%8d
Fri, Sep 11$400-0.2%15d
Fri, Sep 18$370-7.7%22d
Fri, Sep 25$395-1.4%29d
Fri, Oct 2$400-0.2%36d
Fri, Oct 16$400-0.2%50d
Fri, Nov 20$380-5.2%85d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot400220292364436508580$251M$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 — 400 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot4002202803404004605203K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UNH 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

spot400220280340400460520394394
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot22029236443650858097%31%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 32.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 440220280340400460520+$2.9M$2.9M
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
0.94-0.063300.00240.17-0.07-0.07
0.92-0.083400.00330.23-0.09-0.09
0.88-0.103500.00430.30-0.10-0.13
0.83-0.123600.00530.38-0.13-0.18
0.77-0.143700.00640.46-0.15-0.24
0.70-0.163800.00730.52-0.17-0.31
0.62-0.173900.00800.57-0.18-0.39
0.54-0.184000.00840.59-0.18-0.47
0.45-0.184100.00850.59-0.18-0.56
0.37-0.174200.00810.56-0.17-0.64
0.30-0.164300.00740.52-0.16-0.72
0.23-0.144400.00660.46-0.14-0.78
0.18-0.124500.00560.40-0.11-0.84
0.14-0.104600.00470.33-0.09-0.88
0.10-0.084700.00380.27-0.07-0.92

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 36 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot220310372.54004304804K0
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

spot12518528038546060049K49K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 483K call contracts, 410K 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: UNH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk