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

ARKB max pain

Spot (delayed)$21.04
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$20-4.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.33±25.3% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI4.03129 puts / 32 calls
Call wall$28largest call OI
Put wall$11largest put OI
IV3032.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$214per 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — 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

spot20111519232731$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot2011202231100100
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ARKB open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot201120223111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot11151923273182%37%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 40.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot11202231+$550$550
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.970.00110.00950.01-0.00-0.04
0.81-0.00170.03630.04-0.01-0.20
0.67-0.01200.05230.06-0.01-0.35
0.61-0.01210.05610.06-0.01-0.41
0.56-0.01220.05870.07-0.01-0.47
0.26-0.01280.04970.05-0.01-0.81
0.17-0.00310.03840.04-0.00-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. 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