Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 9:45 PM ET

USAR max pain

Spot (delayed)$19.17
Max pain · Fri, Sep 4$17.5-8.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.88±15.0% by Fri, Sep 4
Put/Call OI0.121K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$24largest call OI
Put wall$14.5largest put OI
IV3085.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$221Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $18.5

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$18-6.1%3d
Fri, Aug 28$17.5-8.7%10d
Fri, Sep 4$17.5-8.7%17d
Fri, Sep 11$18.5-3.5%24d
Fri, Sep 18$20+4.3%31d
Fri, Sep 25$19-0.9%38d
Fri, Oct 2$18.5-3.5%45d
Fri, Dec 18$24+25.2%122d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot17.591521263238$15M$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 — 17.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot17.5913161923297K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)USAR open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 4.

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, Sep 4

spot17.591316192329214214
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot91521263238249%74%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 84.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spotflip 18.591316192329+$158K$158K
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, Sep 4

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.89-0.0215.50.04990.01-0.02-0.11
0.86-0.02160.06030.01-0.02-0.14
0.82-0.0316.50.07100.01-0.03-0.18
0.78-0.03170.08120.01-0.03-0.22
0.73-0.0317.50.09030.01-0.03-0.27
0.68-0.04180.09770.01-0.04-0.32
0.63-0.0418.50.10300.02-0.04-0.37
0.57-0.04190.10600.02-0.04-0.43
0.52-0.0419.50.10680.02-0.04-0.48
0.47-0.04200.10570.02-0.04-0.53
0.42-0.0420.50.10290.02-0.04-0.58
0.38-0.04210.09880.02-0.04-0.63
0.29-0.04220.08820.01-0.04-0.71
0.23-0.03230.07610.01-0.03-0.77
0.18-0.03240.06400.01-0.03-0.82

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 34 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot812.516.520.524.5329K0
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

spot110.516.522.5324427K27K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 309K call contracts, 183K 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: USAR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk