Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 26, 8:50 AM ET

ZCSH max pain

Spot (delayed)$123.47
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$110-10.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$29.35±23.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.05823 puts / 783 calls
Call wall$150largest call OI
Put wall$120largest put OI
IV30121.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$30Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $150

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 16$110-10.9%20d
Fri, Nov 20$110-10.9%55d
Fri, Dec 18$90-27.1%83d
Fri, Mar 19$65-47.4%174d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1105580105130155180$3M$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 — 110 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot110557788102117130107107
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ZCSH open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot1105577881021171303737
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot5580105130155180242%116%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 123.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 150557788103118135+$13K−$13K
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.65-0.321150.01020.11-0.32-0.35
0.63-0.331170.01040.11-0.33-0.37
0.62-0.331180.01050.11-0.33-0.38
0.61-0.331190.01060.11-0.33-0.39
0.60-0.341200.01070.12-0.34-0.40
0.59-0.341210.01080.12-0.34-0.41
0.58-0.341220.01080.12-0.34-0.42
0.57-0.341230.01090.12-0.34-0.43
0.56-0.341240.01090.12-0.34-0.45
0.54-0.341250.01100.12-0.34-0.46
0.49-0.341300.01100.12-0.35-0.51
0.44-0.341350.01090.12-0.34-0.56
0.39-0.331400.01060.11-0.33-0.61
0.35-0.321450.01020.11-0.32-0.65
0.31-0.301500.00970.10-0.30-0.70

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 54 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot70941061171251454280
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

spot558093106119132453453
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 1K 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: ZCSH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk