Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 1:05 PM ET

ALGN max pain

Spot (delayed)$173.1
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$160-7.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$10.75±6.2% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI0.1767 puts / 398 calls
Call wall$240largest call OI
Put wall$180largest put OI
IV3036.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$56Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $155

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$177.5+2.5%6d
Fri, Aug 28$160-7.6%13d
Fri, Sep 4$160-7.6%20d
Fri, Sep 11$170-1.8%27d
Fri, Sep 18$170-1.8%34d
Fri, Sep 25$175+1.1%41d
Fri, Oct 16$180+4.0%62d
Fri, Dec 18$155-10.5%125d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot160135156177198219240$1M$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 — 160 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot160135155170185210235246246
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ALGN open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 28.

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 28

spot1601351551701852102355656
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot140160180200220240133%24%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spotflip 155135155170185210235+$31K$31K
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 28

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.061450.00460.04-0.07-0.05
0.94-0.071500.00620.04-0.08-0.06
0.92-0.081550.00880.05-0.08-0.08
0.89-0.091600.01280.07-0.10-0.12
0.82-0.111650.01910.09-0.12-0.18
0.78-0.12167.50.02300.11-0.13-0.22
0.72-0.141700.02680.12-0.14-0.28
0.57-0.161750.03220.14-0.16-0.43
0.41-0.161800.03160.14-0.16-0.59
0.34-0.15182.50.02920.13-0.15-0.67
0.28-0.141850.02590.12-0.14-0.73
0.20-0.131900.01940.10-0.13-0.81
0.15-0.131950.01460.09-0.12-0.85
0.13-0.122000.01130.07-0.12-0.88
0.09-0.112100.00740.06-0.10-0.92

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 22 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot140170182.51952152404840
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

spot65120162.51902303203K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 16K call contracts, 13K 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: ALGN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk