Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 10:03 AM ET

ASPI max pain

Spot (delayed)$4.4
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$4-9.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.88±19.9% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI1.223K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$6largest call OI
Put wall$4largest put OI
IV3099.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$9Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $3

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 14$5+13.6%2d
Fri, Aug 21$4-9.1%9d
Fri, Aug 28$4-9.1%16d
Fri, Sep 4$0.5-88.6%23d
Fri, Sep 11$0.5-88.6%30d
Fri, Sep 18$6+36.4%37d
Fri, Sep 25$0.5-88.6%44d
Fri, Oct 16$6+36.4%65d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot41357911$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 — 4 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot4135792K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ASPI 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

spot4135791515
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot1357911383%92%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 113.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spotflip 312.545.578.5+$17K$17K
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
0.99-0.0010.01110.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.001.50.02180.00-0.00-0.02
0.96-0.0120.03970.00-0.01-0.04
0.94-0.012.50.07140.00-0.01-0.06
0.90-0.0130.13030.00-0.01-0.10
0.82-0.013.50.23990.00-0.01-0.18
0.67-0.0140.39590.00-0.01-0.33
0.45-0.014.50.43390.00-0.01-0.54
0.30-0.0150.34170.00-0.01-0.70
0.21-0.015.50.25300.00-0.01-0.79
0.15-0.0160.19070.00-0.01-0.84
0.12-0.016.50.14790.00-0.01-0.88
0.10-0.0170.11780.00-0.01-0.90
0.08-0.017.50.09590.00-0.01-0.92
0.07-0.0180.07950.00-0.01-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1357101311K0
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

spot0.535.5810.51431K31K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 143K call contracts, 32K 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: ASPI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk