Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 4:20 PM ET

ZVRA max pain

Spot (delayed)$11.51
Max pain · Fri, Feb 19$14+21.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.28±37.1% by Fri, Feb 19
Put/Call OI1.43979 puts / 686 calls
Call wall$11largest call OI
Put wall$19largest put OI
IV3064.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$4Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $15

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$11-4.4%4d
Fri, Sep 18$5-56.6%32d
Fri, Nov 20$12+4.3%95d
Fri, Dec 18$8-30.5%123d
Fri, Jan 15$10-13.1%151d
Fri, Feb 19$14+21.6%186d
Fri, Dec 17$15+30.3%487d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot143610131720$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 — 14 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot143811141720288288
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ZVRA open contracts per strike for Fri, Feb 19.

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, Feb 19

spot1438111417207070
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spot7101215172095%54%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 63.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Feb 19

spotflip 153811141720+$3K$3K
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, Feb 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.0030.00630.01-0.00-0.04
0.92-0.0050.01440.01-0.00-0.08
0.87-0.0070.02820.02-0.00-0.13
0.83-0.0080.03820.02-0.00-0.17
0.78-0.0090.05050.02-0.00-0.22
0.72-0.00100.06380.03-0.01-0.28
0.64-0.01110.07450.03-0.01-0.36
0.57-0.01120.07920.03-0.01-0.44
0.50-0.01130.07830.03-0.01-0.51
0.44-0.01140.07450.03-0.01-0.57
0.39-0.01150.06970.03-0.01-0.62
0.36-0.01160.06490.03-0.01-0.66
0.33-0.01170.06040.03-0.01-0.69
0.30-0.01180.05630.03-0.01-0.72
0.28-0.01190.05260.03-0.01-0.75

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot161014188350
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

spot161116212621K21K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 24K call contracts, 39K 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: ZVRA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk