Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 1:06 AM ET

VST max pain

Spot (delayed)$146.49
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$150+2.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$15.15±10.3% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.6257K puts / 93K calls
Call wall$175largest call OI
Put wall$125largest put OI
IV3042.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.0Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $200

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$150+2.4%3d
Fri, Aug 28$145-1.0%10d
Fri, Sep 4$145-1.0%17d
Fri, Sep 11$140-4.4%24d
Fri, Sep 18$150+2.4%31d
Fri, Sep 25$140-4.4%38d
Fri, Oct 2$130-11.3%45d
Fri, Oct 16$160+9.2%59d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot15070112154196238280$820M$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 — 150 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1507010514017521024513K13K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VST 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

spot150701051401752102457K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot70112154196238280144%39%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 43.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 20085120155190225260+$3.4M$3.4M
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
0.98-0.011100.00230.02-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.021150.00380.04-0.03-0.04
0.94-0.031200.00610.05-0.04-0.06
0.90-0.051250.00910.08-0.05-0.10
0.84-0.071300.01280.11-0.07-0.16
0.76-0.091350.01640.13-0.09-0.24
0.67-0.101400.01950.16-0.11-0.34
0.56-0.111450.02120.17-0.12-0.44
0.46-0.121500.02130.17-0.12-0.55
0.36-0.111550.01990.16-0.11-0.65
0.28-0.101600.01760.14-0.10-0.73
0.21-0.091650.01480.12-0.09-0.81
0.15-0.071700.01200.10-0.07-0.86
0.11-0.061750.00950.08-0.06-0.91
0.08-0.051800.00740.07-0.05-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 42 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot8012514215017021016K0
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

spot7010514017521025032K32K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 286K call contracts, 248K 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: VST workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk