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

USAR max pain

Spot (delayed)$19.17
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$20+4.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.81±19.9% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.6261K puts / 98K calls
Call wall$22largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV3085.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$562Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $22

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — 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

spot2011020293948$202M$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot201101826344215K15K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)USAR open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 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, Sep 18

spot20110182634421K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot51422313948303%78%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 84.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 2251321293745+$363K$363K
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 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.01120.01360.00-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.01130.02120.01-0.01-0.05
0.92-0.01140.03160.01-0.01-0.08
0.87-0.01150.04400.01-0.02-0.13
0.81-0.02160.05680.02-0.02-0.19
0.73-0.02170.06800.02-0.02-0.26
0.65-0.03180.07610.02-0.03-0.34
0.57-0.03190.08030.02-0.03-0.42
0.49-0.03200.08070.02-0.03-0.50
0.42-0.03210.07810.02-0.03-0.58
0.36-0.03220.07340.02-0.03-0.64
0.30-0.03230.06740.02-0.03-0.70
0.25-0.03240.06090.02-0.03-0.75
0.21-0.02250.05430.02-0.02-0.79
0.17-0.02260.04790.01-0.02-0.82

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 47 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