Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 9:21 AM ET

ALC max pain

Spot (delayed)$70.38
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$70-0.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.43±7.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.001K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$72.5largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3038.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $90

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$70-0.5%15d
Fri, Sep 18$70-0.5%43d
Fri, Nov 20$62.5-11.2%106d
Fri, Dec 18$70-0.5%134d
Fri, Jan 15$65-7.6%162d
Fri, Feb 19$62.5-11.2%197d
Thu, Jun 17$77.5+10.1%315d
Fri, Dec 17$80+13.7%498d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot704558718497110$4M$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 — 70 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot704560708090228228
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ALC 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

spot7045607080908989
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot4558718497110100%39%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 45.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 904560708090+$27K$27K
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
0.98-0.01500.00320.01-0.01-0.01
0.97-0.02550.00740.01-0.02-0.03
0.95-0.0357.50.01130.02-0.03-0.05
0.92-0.04600.01720.02-0.04-0.08
0.88-0.0562.50.02590.03-0.05-0.12
0.81-0.06650.03780.04-0.06-0.19
0.70-0.0767.50.05100.05-0.07-0.30
0.56-0.08700.06010.06-0.08-0.44
0.41-0.0872.50.05910.06-0.08-0.59
0.29-0.07750.04990.05-0.07-0.72
0.20-0.0677.50.03860.04-0.06-0.81
0.14-0.05800.02890.03-0.05-0.87
0.10-0.0482.50.02160.03-0.04-0.91
0.07-0.04850.01620.02-0.04-0.93
0.06-0.0387.50.01240.02-0.03-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot4557.567.577.587.51104500
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

spot32.547.56580951251K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 9K call contracts, 11K 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: ALC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk