Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 2:08 AM ET

BCS max pain

Spot (delayed)$28.09
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$28-0.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.88±3.1% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.296K puts / 21K calls
Call wall$28largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV3028.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3.9Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $28

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$28-0.3%6d
Fri, Sep 18$26-7.4%34d
Fri, Oct 16$28-0.3%62d
Fri, Dec 18$28-0.3%125d
Fri, Jan 15$15-46.6%153d
Fri, Mar 19$26-7.4%216d
Fri, Jan 21$20-28.8%524d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot28182125283235$14M$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 — 28 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot28182225283113K13K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BCS 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

spot2818222528315858
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot21232528303296%26%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 26.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 281822252831+$3.0M$3.0M
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
1.00210.00290.00-0.00-0.00
0.99220.00460.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00230.00860.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.00240.01720.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.01250.03780.00-0.01-0.03
0.93-0.01260.08920.01-0.01-0.07
0.81-0.02270.20500.01-0.02-0.19
0.55-0.03280.33030.02-0.03-0.46
0.25-0.02290.25590.01-0.02-0.76
0.09-0.01300.12200.01-0.01-0.91
0.04-0.01310.05120.00-0.01-0.97
0.01-0.00320.02160.00-0.00-0.99
0.000.00350.00200.00-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot17222528313413K0
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

spot3131823283314K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 55K call contracts, 30K 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: BCS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk