Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 7:44 PM ET

USAS max pain

Spot (delayed)$5.25
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$4-23.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.1±21.0% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.3811K puts / 29K calls
Call wall$6largest call OI
Put wall$3largest put OI
IV3084.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$159Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $2

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$5-4.7%6d
Fri, Sep 18$4-23.7%34d
Fri, Oct 16$5-4.7%62d
Fri, Nov 20$4-23.7%97d
Fri, Dec 18$6+14.4%125d
Fri, Jan 15$4-23.7%153d
Fri, Feb 19$4-23.7%188d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot4124578$9M$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 — 4 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot4135711K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)USAS 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

spot413571K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot124578293%79%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 85.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 2345678+$84K$84K
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
0.99-0.0010.00450.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0020.01680.00-0.00-0.02
0.95-0.0030.05250.00-0.00-0.05
0.85-0.0140.14420.00-0.01-0.15
0.63-0.0150.27120.01-0.01-0.38
0.36-0.0160.26640.01-0.01-0.64
0.20-0.0170.18410.01-0.01-0.81
0.11-0.0080.11840.00-0.00-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot15913172137K0
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

spot15913172151K51K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 153K call contracts, 26K 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: USAS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk