Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 1:43 AM ET

AIT max pain

Spot (delayed)$358.78
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$350-2.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.13±2.3% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.16234 puts / 201 calls
Call wall$360largest call OI
Put wall$350largest put OI
IV3024.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$274Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $360

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$350-2.4%3d
Fri, Sep 18$340-5.2%31d
Fri, Nov 20$340-5.2%94d
Fri, Feb 19$320-10.8%185d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot350180226272318364410$2M$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 — 350 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot3501802102603103604106767
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AIT 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

spot35018021026031036041011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot290314338362386410104%27%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 26.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 360280310340370400+$299K$299K
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
1.002900.00010.00-0.01-0.00
1.00-0.003000.00020.00-0.01-0.00
1.00-0.013100.00060.00-0.02-0.00
0.99-0.033200.00130.01-0.04-0.01
0.98-0.083300.00350.02-0.08-0.02
0.94-0.183400.00960.05-0.18-0.06
0.80-0.383500.02510.10-0.38-0.20
0.47-0.523600.04080.15-0.52-0.53
0.15-0.283700.02300.09-0.28-0.86
0.04-0.093800.00720.03-0.09-0.97
0.01-0.033900.00220.01-0.04-1.00
0.00-0.014000.00070.00-0.03-1.00
0.00-0.004100.00030.00-0.03-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 26 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2503003403804201080
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

spot160195260330400470140140
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 757 call contracts, 653 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: AIT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk