Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 10:06 AM ET

ZETA max pain

Spot (delayed)$28.57
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$20-30.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.59±16.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.4019K puts / 48K calls
Call wall$22.5largest call OI
Put wall$17.5largest put OI
IV3060.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.1Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $20

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 14$24.5-14.2%1d
Fri, Aug 21$22.5-21.2%8d
Fri, Aug 28$24-16.0%15d
Fri, Sep 4$25-12.5%22d
Fri, Sep 11$25.5-10.7%29d
Fri, Sep 18$20-30.0%36d
Fri, Sep 25$26.5-7.2%43d
Fri, Dec 18$22.5-21.2%127d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot2051219263340$74M$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot205101520253517K17K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ZETA 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

spot2051015202535838838
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot51219263340233%43%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 60.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 2051015202535+$347K$347K
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
1.00100.00080.00-0.00-0.00
0.990.0012.50.00150.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00150.00280.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0017.50.00600.00-0.00-0.02
0.96-0.01200.01360.01-0.01-0.04
0.91-0.0122.50.02940.02-0.01-0.10
0.79-0.02250.05180.03-0.02-0.21
0.45-0.03300.07150.04-0.03-0.55
0.19-0.02350.04710.03-0.02-0.82
0.07-0.01400.02220.01-0.01-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 12 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1216.520.524.528.532.512K0
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

spot2.515.520.525.530.53751K51K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 240K call contracts, 97K 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: ZETA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk