Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 7:50 PM ET

WES max pain

Spot (delayed)$48.68
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$47-3.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.1±4.3% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.18594 puts / 3K calls
Call wall$49largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3018.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$986Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $47

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$45-7.6%2d
Fri, Sep 18$47-3.5%30d
Fri, Nov 20$44-9.6%93d
Fri, Jan 15$42-13.7%149d
Fri, Feb 19$48-1.4%184d
Fri, Jan 21$37-24.0%520d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot47394245495255$2M$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 — 47 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot4739424548552K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)WES 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

spot4739424548557575
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot39424549525559%16%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 18.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 473942454855+$819K$819K
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
0.94-0.01420.02410.02-0.01-0.06
0.93-0.01430.03140.02-0.01-0.07
0.91-0.01440.04200.02-0.01-0.09
0.88-0.01450.05740.03-0.01-0.12
0.83-0.01460.08010.04-0.01-0.17
0.76-0.01470.11160.05-0.01-0.25
0.64-0.01480.14390.05-0.02-0.37
0.49-0.02490.15120.06-0.02-0.53
0.36-0.02500.12970.05-0.02-0.66
0.11-0.01550.04180.03-0.01-0.91

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3340434649603K0
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

spot2031364146554K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 28K call contracts, 13K 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: WES workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk