Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 10:20 AM ET

ACM max pain

Spot (delayed)$63.59
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$67.5+6.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.88±4.5% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.391K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$80largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3033.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$130Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$67.5+6.1%7d
Fri, Sep 18$62.5-1.7%35d
Fri, Oct 16$72.5+14.0%63d
Fri, Dec 18$70+10.1%126d
Fri, Mar 19$67.5+6.1%217d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot67.53869101132164195$32M$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 — 67.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot67.537.562.57587.5100130733733
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ACM open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 21.

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, Aug 21

spot67.537.562.57587.5100130140140
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot556371798795145%32%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 36.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot5062.57077.585+$99K$99K
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, Aug 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.0037.5
1.0040
1.00500.00120.00-0.00-0.00
0.98-0.01550.00910.00-0.01-0.02
0.86-0.05600.06290.02-0.05-0.14
0.65-0.0862.50.11460.04-0.08-0.35
0.34-0.07650.11740.04-0.07-0.66
0.12-0.0467.50.06410.02-0.04-0.88
0.04-0.02700.02440.01-0.01-0.96
0.01-0.0172.50.00840.00-0.00-0.99
0.00-0.00750.00290.00-0.01-1.00
0.00-0.0077.50.00110.00-0.01-1.00
0.000.00800.00040.00-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 30 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot37.56580951201909630
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

spot37.562.582.51051451851K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 8K call contracts, 5K 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: ACM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk