Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 11, 6:04 AM ET

WDC max pain

Spot (delayed)$458.5
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$480+4.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$49±10.7% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI2.087K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$525largest call OI
Put wall$435largest put OI
IV3067.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2.7Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Sep 11$465+1.4%today
Fri, Sep 18$440-4.0%7d
Fri, Sep 25$480+4.7%14d
Fri, Oct 2$455-0.8%21d
Fri, Oct 9$490+6.9%28d
Fri, Oct 16$460+0.3%35d
Fri, Oct 23$460+0.3%42d
Fri, Nov 20$480+4.7%70d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot480260351442533624715$105M$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 — 480 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot480260355405455505555874874
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)WDC open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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 25

spot480260355405455505555136136
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot260351442533624715142%58%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 65.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot260355405455505555+$1.0M$1.0M
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 25

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.75-0.644250.00510.29-0.65-0.25
0.73-0.684300.00540.31-0.69-0.28
0.70-0.714350.00560.33-0.72-0.30
0.67-0.744400.00590.34-0.75-0.34
0.64-0.774450.00610.35-0.78-0.37
0.60-0.794500.00620.36-0.80-0.40
0.57-0.814550.00630.37-0.81-0.43
0.54-0.824600.00640.37-0.82-0.46
0.51-0.824650.00640.37-0.83-0.49
0.48-0.824700.00640.37-0.83-0.53
0.45-0.824750.00640.37-0.82-0.56
0.41-0.814800.00620.36-0.81-0.59
0.39-0.804850.00610.36-0.79-0.62
0.36-0.784900.00600.35-0.77-0.65
0.33-0.764950.00580.34-0.75-0.67

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

spot77.52703854605156104K0
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

spot1513027041053068021K21K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 189K call contracts, 270K 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: WDC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk