Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 1:05 PM ET

WM max pain

Spot (delayed)$224.1
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$230+2.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.4±5.5% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI1.4710K puts / 7K calls
Call wall$240largest call OI
Put wall$220largest put OI
IV3019.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$6.1Mper 1% move

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$220-1.8%5d
Fri, Sep 18$230+2.6%33d
Fri, Oct 16$230+2.6%61d
Fri, Dec 18$210-6.3%124d
Fri, Jan 15$210-6.3%152d
Fri, Mar 19$220-1.8%215d
Thu, Jun 17$220-1.8%305d
Fri, Jan 21$190-15.2%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot230115160205250295340$100M$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 — 230 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot2301151451752102703306K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)WM 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

spot2301151451752102703305050
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot13017221425629834080%16%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 20.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot160180200240280+$7.6M$7.6M
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
1.001750.00030.00-0.00-0.00
1.001800.00050.01-0.00-0.01
0.991850.00090.01-0.01-0.01
0.991900.00170.02-0.01-0.02
0.98-0.001950.00310.04-0.01-0.03
0.96-0.012000.00560.06-0.02-0.05
0.87-0.042100.01510.15-0.05-0.15
0.66-0.072200.02790.26-0.07-0.37
0.36-0.072300.02850.26-0.07-0.65
0.15-0.052400.01710.17-0.04-0.85
0.06-0.022500.00780.09-0.01-0.95
0.02-0.012600.00330.04-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.012700.00140.02-0.07-1.00
0.00-0.002800.00060.01-0.08-1.00
0.00-0.002900.00030.01-0.08-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 32 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1151501802202803403K0
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

spot1001351702102803508K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 24K call contracts, 19K 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: WM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk