Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 20, 1:39 PM ET

VIX max pain

Spot (delayed)$14.81
Max pain · Wed, Jan 20$21+41.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.56±37.5% by Wed, Jan 20
Put/Call OI0.43108K puts / 248K calls
Call wall$70largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3096.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$552Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $11

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Wed, Sep 23$16+8.0%3d
Wed, Sep 30$16+8.0%10d
Wed, Oct 7$16+8.0%17d
Wed, Oct 14$20+35.0%24d
Wed, Oct 21$19+28.3%31d
Wed, Nov 18$20+35.0%59d
Wed, Dec 16$20+35.0%87d
Wed, Jan 20$21+41.8%122d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot21104886124162200$3.9B$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 — 21 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Wed, Jan 20

spot21101525355511030K30K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VIX open contracts per strike for Wed, Jan 20.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-172026-09-18

spot1120253165100+5K5K
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: 15 +5K · 20 +1K · 23 +328 · 40 +250

Volume by strike · Wed, Jan 20

spot211015253555110176176
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Jan 20

spot104886124162200168%39%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 49.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Jan 20

spotflip 111016263660120+$184K$184K
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, Jan 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.0011.50.00780.01-0.00-0.02
0.96-0.00120.01070.01-0.00-0.03
0.95-0.0012.50.01420.01-0.00-0.04
0.94-0.00130.01810.01-0.00-0.05
0.92-0.0013.50.02240.01-0.00-0.06
0.90-0.00140.02710.02-0.00-0.08
0.88-0.0014.50.03200.02-0.00-0.10
0.86-0.01150.03690.02-0.01-0.13
0.79-0.01160.04510.03-0.01-0.19
0.73-0.01170.04980.04-0.01-0.26
0.67-0.01180.05160.04-0.01-0.32
0.61-0.01190.05150.04-0.01-0.37
0.56-0.01200.05040.04-0.01-0.42
0.52-0.01210.04880.04-0.01-0.47
0.48-0.01220.04690.04-0.01-0.50

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1014.5233242.58034K0
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

07-2808-0608-1708-2609-0409-1520.6614.25
— 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

spot1016223147.5110747K747K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 8.6M call contracts, 2.6M 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