Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 2:55 AM ET

AG max pain

Spot (delayed)$19.6
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$17-13.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.07±5.5% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.4240K puts / 95K calls
Call wall$18largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3061.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.7Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $17

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$17-13.3%3d
Fri, Aug 28$17.5-10.7%10d
Fri, Sep 4$18-8.2%17d
Fri, Sep 11$17-13.3%24d
Fri, Sep 18$17-13.3%31d
Fri, Sep 25$17-13.3%38d
Fri, Oct 2$20+2.0%45d
Fri, Oct 16$18-8.2%59d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1751117232935$124M$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 — 17 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot17512.51619.5233010K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AG 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

spot17512.51619.523302K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot121721263035235%63%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 65.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 1791316192227+$452K$452K
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
0.99-0.01160.01900.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.0116.50.03110.00-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.01170.05150.00-0.01-0.04
0.94-0.0217.50.08440.00-0.02-0.07
0.89-0.03180.13430.00-0.03-0.12
0.81-0.0518.50.19940.01-0.05-0.19
0.69-0.06190.26370.01-0.06-0.31
0.55-0.0719.50.29840.01-0.07-0.46
0.40-0.07200.28770.01-0.07-0.60
0.28-0.0620.50.24260.01-0.06-0.73
0.19-0.05210.18670.01-0.05-0.82
0.12-0.0421.50.13580.00-0.04-0.89
0.08-0.03220.09590.00-0.03-0.93
0.05-0.0222.50.06670.00-0.02-0.95
0.04-0.01230.04610.00-0.01-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 39 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot51215.51922.52911K0
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

spot11014.51923.532111K111K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 642K call contracts, 347K 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: AG workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk