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

VST max pain

Spot (delayed)$146.49
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$160+9.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$21.3±14.5% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.8426K puts / 14K calls
Call wall$165largest call OI
Put wall$110largest put OI
IV3042.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2.2Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · 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.

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

spot16070108146184222260$146M$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 — 160 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot1607010013016019024011K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VST open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot16070100130160190240314314
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot7010814618422226086%41%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 45.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot70100130160190240+$917K$917K
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.021100.00390.07-0.03-0.05
0.92-0.031150.00540.09-0.03-0.08
0.89-0.041200.00720.12-0.04-0.12
0.84-0.051250.00920.14-0.05-0.16
0.79-0.061300.01120.17-0.06-0.22
0.72-0.071350.01300.20-0.07-0.29
0.65-0.081400.01440.22-0.08-0.36
0.57-0.081450.01520.23-0.09-0.44
0.50-0.091500.01540.24-0.09-0.51
0.42-0.081550.01510.23-0.09-0.59
0.36-0.081600.01430.22-0.08-0.66
0.30-0.071650.01310.20-0.07-0.72
0.24-0.071700.01180.19-0.07-0.77
0.20-0.061750.01040.17-0.06-0.82
0.17-0.061800.00910.15-0.06-0.86

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 33 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