Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 28, 10:01 AM ET

W max pain

Spot (delayed)$105.01
Max pain · Fri, Sep 4$105-0.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.98±6.6% by Fri, Sep 4
Put/Call OI1.102K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$106largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3053.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$272Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $65

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 28$96-8.6%today
Fri, Sep 4$105-0.0%7d
Fri, Sep 11$104-1.0%14d
Fri, Sep 18$95-9.5%21d
Fri, Sep 25$97-7.6%28d
Fri, Oct 2$101-3.8%35d
Fri, Oct 16$105-0.0%49d
Fri, Nov 20$115+9.5%84d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1056081102123144165$11M$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 — 105 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot105608494104114124608608
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)W open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 4.

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 4

spot105608494104114124612612
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot6081102123144165180%41%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 56.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spotflip 65608494104114124+$301K$301K
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 4

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.82-0.14980.03090.04-0.14-0.18
0.78-0.15990.03440.05-0.16-0.22
0.75-0.171000.03770.05-0.17-0.26
0.71-0.181010.04060.05-0.19-0.30
0.66-0.201020.04300.06-0.20-0.34
0.62-0.211030.04490.06-0.21-0.39
0.57-0.211040.04610.06-0.21-0.43
0.52-0.221050.04670.06-0.22-0.48
0.48-0.221060.04670.06-0.22-0.53
0.43-0.211070.04600.06-0.21-0.57
0.39-0.211080.04480.06-0.21-0.61
0.35-0.201090.04300.06-0.20-0.66
0.31-0.191100.04080.06-0.19-0.70
0.27-0.181110.03830.05-0.18-0.73
0.24-0.171120.03550.05-0.17-0.77

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

spot5083951061171282K0
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

spot12.54062.587.510614514K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 91K call contracts, 111K 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: W workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk