Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 1:54 AM ET

ARES max pain

Spot (delayed)$149.45
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$125-16.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8±5.4% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.224K puts / 17K calls
Call wall$125largest call OI
Put wall$115largest put OI
IV3036.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$8.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $125

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$125-16.4%6d
Fri, Aug 28$124-17.0%13d
Fri, Sep 4$135-9.7%20d
Fri, Sep 11$140-6.3%27d
Fri, Sep 18$130-13.0%34d
Fri, Sep 25$125-16.4%41d
Fri, Nov 20$120-19.7%97d
Fri, Dec 18$135-9.7%125d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1257595115135155175$66M$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 — 125 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot125751051241311421656K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ARES 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

spot12575105124131142165147147
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot95111127143159175180%36%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 45.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 12575105124131142165+$5.3M$5.3M
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
0.93-0.111310.00990.03-0.11-0.07
0.92-0.111320.01090.03-0.12-0.08
0.91-0.121340.01320.04-0.13-0.09
0.90-0.131350.01450.04-0.13-0.10
0.83-0.171400.02400.06-0.17-0.17
0.79-0.181420.02930.06-0.18-0.21
0.70-0.201450.03820.08-0.20-0.30
0.48-0.221500.04640.09-0.22-0.52
0.29-0.201550.03670.08-0.20-0.71
0.18-0.171600.02440.06-0.17-0.82
0.12-0.141650.01630.04-0.14-0.88
0.06-0.101750.00820.03-0.10-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 27 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot951201301381451556K0
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

spot551071201331461808K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 35K call contracts, 51K 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: ARES workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk