Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 2:50 AM ET

BCE max pain

Spot (delayed)$23.32
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$22-5.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.55±2.4% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI5.706K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$22largest call OI
Put wall$21largest put OI
IV3017.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$80Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$22-5.7%5d
Fri, Sep 18$23-1.4%33d
Fri, Oct 16$21-9.9%61d
Fri, Dec 18$23-1.4%124d
Fri, Jan 15$25+7.2%152d
Fri, Mar 19$19-18.5%215d
Fri, Jan 21$22-5.7%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot22151720222527$4M$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 — 22 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot2215182124275K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BCE 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

spot2215182124277979
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot20212324262784%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 25.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot161820222426+$136K$136K
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
1.00160.00080.000.00-0.00
1.00170.00150.000.00-0.00
1.00180.00320.00-0.00-0.00
1.00190.00720.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00200.01760.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.00210.04800.00-0.00-0.03
0.92-0.01220.15160.01-0.01-0.08
0.68-0.02230.49050.01-0.02-0.33
0.17-0.01240.37340.01-0.01-0.85
0.04-0.00250.08960.00-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.00260.02700.00-0.01-1.00
0.01-0.00270.01030.00-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot19222528315920
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

spot13182328334516K16K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 18K call contracts, 25K 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: BCE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk