Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 9:30 PM ET

ARKB max pain

Spot (delayed)$21.04
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$21-0.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.8±8.6% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.772K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3032.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$16Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$21-0.2%8d
Fri, Sep 18$21-0.2%36d
Fri, Dec 18$24+14.1%127d
Fri, Jan 15$21-0.2%155d
Fri, Mar 19$20-4.9%218d
Fri, Jan 21$13-38.2%526d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot21111723293541$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 — 21 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot21111722273238711711
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ARKB open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

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, Sep 18

spot2111172227323877
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot121824293541115%28%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 33.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot111823283339+$42K$42K
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, Sep 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.00140.01420.01-0.01-0.03
0.96-0.01150.02030.01-0.01-0.04
0.95-0.01160.02940.01-0.01-0.06
0.92-0.01170.04300.01-0.01-0.09
0.88-0.01180.06400.01-0.01-0.13
0.82-0.01190.09580.02-0.01-0.19
0.72-0.01200.14030.02-0.01-0.29
0.57-0.01210.18200.03-0.01-0.45
0.39-0.01220.17970.03-0.01-0.65
0.25-0.01230.13960.02-0.01-0.79
0.17-0.01240.10060.02-0.01-0.88
0.12-0.01250.07290.01-0.01-0.93
0.09-0.01260.05430.01-0.01-0.96
0.07-0.01270.04170.01-0.01-0.98
0.06-0.01280.03280.01-0.01-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 29 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1420253035415940
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

spot1017243138451K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 9K call contracts, 4K 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: ARKB workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk