Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 3:09 PM ET

UVXY max pain

Spot (delayed)$20.25
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$28+38.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.81±18.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.5712K puts / 22K calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3075.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$33Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $15

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 14$20-1.2%1d
Fri, Aug 21$23+13.6%8d
Fri, Aug 28$21+3.7%15d
Fri, Sep 4$22+8.7%22d
Fri, Sep 11$20.5+1.3%29d
Fri, Sep 18$28+38.3%36d
Fri, Sep 25$20-1.2%43d
Fri, Oct 16$24+18.5%64d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot281031527394115$154M$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 — 28 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot281023324150602K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UVXY 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

spot28102332415060140140
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1031527394115245%54%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 75.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 15102332415060+$69K$69K
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
0.98-0.00100.00550.00-0.00-0.01
0.94-0.01150.02860.01-0.01-0.06
0.90-0.01160.04340.01-0.01-0.10
0.83-0.01170.06050.02-0.01-0.17
0.74-0.02180.07300.02-0.02-0.26
0.65-0.02190.07840.02-0.02-0.34
0.57-0.03200.07890.03-0.03-0.43
0.50-0.03210.07640.03-0.03-0.50
0.43-0.03220.07220.03-0.03-0.57
0.38-0.03230.06710.02-0.03-0.62
0.33-0.03240.06180.02-0.03-0.67
0.29-0.03250.05650.02-0.03-0.71
0.26-0.03260.05150.02-0.03-0.74
0.23-0.03270.04700.02-0.03-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 53 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot521.527.534467014K0
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

spot5212736476823K23K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 157K call contracts, 72K 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: UVXY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk