Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 3:44 AM ET

VIX max pain

Spot (delayed)$15.84
Max pain · Wed, Sep 23$16+1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.95±12.3% by Wed, Sep 23
Put/Call OI0.087K puts / 89K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3075.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.6Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Wed, Sep 16$18.5+16.8%5d
Wed, Sep 23$16+1.0%12d
Wed, Sep 30$16+1.0%19d
Wed, Oct 7$16+1.0%26d
Wed, Oct 14$20+26.3%33d
Wed, Oct 21$19+19.9%40d
Wed, Nov 18$20+26.3%68d
Wed, Dec 16$20+26.3%96d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot161028466482100$677M$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 — 16 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Wed, Sep 23

spot1610152433458527K27K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VIX open contracts per strike for Wed, Sep 23.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-102026-09-11

spot121622283560+1K1K
Net contracts opened (up, green) or closed (down, red) per strike since the previous snapshot — where the walls are building and where they’re unwinding. Biggest moves: 14.5 1K · 24 +951 · 16 +816 · 18 +393

Volume by strike · Wed, Sep 23

spot161015243345853K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Sep 23

spot122639536680334%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 83.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Sep 23

spot101524334585+$711K$711K
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 · Wed, Sep 23

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.00120.00920.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0012.50.01200.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.01130.01560.00-0.01-0.02
0.98-0.0113.50.02090.00-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.01140.02910.00-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.0114.50.04430.00-0.01-0.05
0.91-0.02150.06750.01-0.02-0.09
0.79-0.03160.11160.01-0.03-0.21
0.65-0.04170.13810.01-0.04-0.35
0.50-0.05180.14170.01-0.05-0.49
0.38-0.05190.12660.01-0.05-0.62
0.29-0.05200.10530.01-0.05-0.70
0.24-0.05210.08600.01-0.05-0.76
0.20-0.05220.07090.01-0.05-0.80
0.17-0.04230.05950.01-0.04-0.83

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 49 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot101621.5314595361K0
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.

Max pain history — nearest expiry vs price

07-2808-0508-1308-2108-3109-0820.6614.25
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot1016223147.5110829K829K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 11.0M call contracts, 3.8M 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: VIX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk