Event risk before this expiration:FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.
■ 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 — 19 — is the max pain price.
Open interest by strike · Wed, Oct 21
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VIX open contracts per strike for Wed, Oct 21.
Open-interest change · 2026-09-10 → 2026-09-11
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: 60 −46K · 19 +41K · 22 +32K · 80 +24K
Volume by strike · Wed, Oct 21
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).
Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Oct 21
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 59.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.
Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Oct 21
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, Oct 21
Call Δ
Call Θ
Strike
Γ
Vega
Put Θ
Put Δ
0.96
-0.00
13
0.0206
0.01
-0.00
-0.04
0.88
-0.01
15
0.0566
0.01
-0.01
-0.12
0.84
-0.01
15.5
0.0685
0.01
-0.01
-0.16
0.79
-0.01
16
0.0786
0.02
-0.01
-0.21
0.73
-0.01
16.5
0.0853
0.02
-0.01
-0.26
0.68
-0.02
17
0.0884
0.02
-0.02
-0.31
0.63
-0.02
17.5
0.0885
0.02
-0.02
-0.36
0.58
-0.02
18
0.0867
0.02
-0.02
-0.41
0.54
-0.02
18.5
0.0839
0.02
-0.02
-0.45
0.51
-0.03
19
0.0807
0.02
-0.03
-0.49
0.47
-0.03
19.5
0.0773
0.02
-0.03
-0.52
Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 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
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
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.
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.