Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 11:12 AM ET

AEM max pain

Spot (delayed)$187.21
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$165-11.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.85±4.2% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.6313K puts / 21K calls
Call wall$200largest call OI
Put wall$150largest put OI
IV3043.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$11.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $150

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$165-11.9%3d
Fri, Aug 28$170-9.2%10d
Fri, Sep 4$165-11.9%17d
Fri, Sep 11$175-6.5%24d
Fri, Sep 18$175-6.5%31d
Fri, Sep 25$180-3.9%38d
Fri, Oct 2$150-19.9%45d
Fri, Oct 16$165-11.9%59d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot165120150180210240270$165M$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 — 165 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot165120139148165187.521011K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AEM 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

spot165120139148165187.5210568568
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot120150180210240270197%42%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 49.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 150148160177.5190205250+$8.5M$8.5M
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
0.99-0.011650.00160.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.041700.00440.01-0.04-0.02
0.95-0.101750.01160.02-0.10-0.05
0.92-0.15177.50.01790.03-0.15-0.09
0.86-0.231800.02590.04-0.23-0.14
0.79-0.31182.50.03460.06-0.31-0.22
0.69-0.391850.04210.07-0.39-0.32
0.57-0.44187.50.04610.08-0.45-0.43
0.46-0.461900.04590.08-0.46-0.55
0.35-0.43192.50.04190.07-0.43-0.65
0.26-0.381950.03580.07-0.38-0.74
0.19-0.32197.50.02910.05-0.32-0.81
0.14-0.262000.02280.04-0.26-0.87
0.07-0.152050.01310.03-0.15-0.94
0.04-0.092100.00720.02-0.08-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 42 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot115142152.517519523011K0
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

spot5510514518023032018K18K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 108K call contracts, 72K 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: AEM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk