Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 9:47 PM ET

YCL max pain

Spot (delayed)$17.91
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$15-16.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.18±6.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.0255 puts / 3K calls
Call wall$18largest call OI
Put wall$19largest put OI
IV3022.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$177Kper 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$17-5.1%5d
Fri, Sep 18$15-16.3%33d
Fri, Dec 18$10-44.2%124d
Fri, Mar 19$8-55.3%215d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot15151718202123$1M$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 — 15 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot151517192123719719
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)YCL 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

spot1515171921237878
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot15171820212399%15%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 27.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1517192123+$83K$83K
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
0.89-0.01150.06670.01-0.01-0.11
0.84-0.01160.10970.01-0.01-0.16
0.75-0.01170.20200.02-0.01-0.25
0.50-0.01180.36080.02-0.01-0.51
0.23-0.01190.23270.02-0.01-0.78
0.14-0.01200.13030.01-0.01-0.87
0.10-0.01210.08410.01-0.00-0.91
0.08-0.01220.05970.01-0.00-0.93
0.06-0.01230.04510.01-0.00-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot912151821252K0
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

spot8121620242K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7K call contracts, 358 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: YCL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk