Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 27, 1:38 AM ET

UPS max pain

Spot (delayed)$105.68
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$105-0.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.77±7.4% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.719K puts / 13K calls
Call wall$110largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3023.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $110

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$103-2.5%2d
Fri, Sep 4$102-3.5%9d
Fri, Sep 11$105-0.6%16d
Fri, Sep 18$105-0.6%23d
Fri, Sep 25$103-2.5%30d
Fri, Oct 2$102-3.5%37d
Fri, Oct 16$105-0.6%51d
Fri, Nov 20$105-0.6%86d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1055578101124147170$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 — 105 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot1055575951151351554K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UPS 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

spot105557595115135155386386
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot557810112414717095%18%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 110557595115135155+$1.5M$1.5M
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
1.00700.00070.01-0.00-0.00
0.99750.00110.01-0.00-0.01
0.99800.00200.01-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.00850.00400.02-0.01-0.02
0.95-0.01900.00900.04-0.01-0.05
0.89-0.02950.01880.08-0.02-0.12
0.76-0.031000.03160.12-0.03-0.25
0.57-0.041050.04080.15-0.04-0.44
0.37-0.041100.03980.15-0.04-0.65
0.20-0.031150.02980.11-0.03-0.83
0.10-0.021200.01800.07-0.02-0.95
0.05-0.011250.00980.04-0.01-1.00
0.02-0.011300.00530.02-0.01-1.00
0.01-0.001350.00300.01-0.01-1.00
0.01-0.001400.00180.01-0.01-1.00

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

spot70931011091171255K0
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

spot459110211312415526K26K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 198K call contracts, 165K 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: UPS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk