Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 5:46 AM ET

ZTO max pain

Spot (delayed)$22.9
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$25+9.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.35±19.0% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI1.3716K puts / 11K calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV3034.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$56Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $13

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$23+0.4%6d
Fri, Sep 18$25+9.2%34d
Fri, Oct 16$22-3.9%62d
Fri, Dec 18$25+9.2%125d
Fri, Jan 15$25+9.2%153d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot253916222935$31M$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 — 25 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot25315202428328K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ZTO open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot253152024283288
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot10152025303597%29%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 36.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 1331521252933+$70K$70K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.91-0.00150.02030.02-0.00-0.09
0.87-0.01170.03080.03-0.01-0.14
0.84-0.01180.03780.04-0.01-0.17
0.80-0.01190.04620.04-0.01-0.20
0.75-0.01200.05580.05-0.01-0.25
0.69-0.01210.06610.05-0.01-0.31
0.62-0.01220.07540.06-0.01-0.39
0.54-0.01230.08170.06-0.01-0.47
0.46-0.01240.08330.06-0.01-0.56
0.39-0.01250.08040.06-0.01-0.64
0.32-0.01260.07440.05-0.01-0.71
0.27-0.01270.06680.05-0.01-0.77
0.22-0.01280.05900.04-0.01-0.81
0.18-0.00290.05170.04-0.00-0.85
0.16-0.00300.04510.04-0.00-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1520232629322K0
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

spot3151923273112K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 16K call contracts, 28K 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: ZTO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk