Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 2:53 PM ET

BEKE max pain

Spot (delayed)$16.94
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$17+0.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.73±10.2% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.232K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$17largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3043.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$36Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $8

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$17+0.4%5d
Fri, Aug 28$17+0.4%12d
Fri, Sep 4$16-5.5%19d
Fri, Sep 11$15-11.4%26d
Fri, Sep 18$17+0.4%33d
Fri, Sep 25$18+6.3%40d
Fri, Oct 16$17+0.4%61d
Fri, Dec 18$17+0.4%124d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot175912161923$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 — 17 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot175913.515.517.520913913
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BEKE 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

spot175913.515.517.52033
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot6912141720329%55%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 93.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 861214.516.518.522+$66K$66K
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
0.89-0.0413.50.05510.01-0.04-0.11
0.87-0.04140.06750.01-0.04-0.13
0.85-0.0414.50.08410.01-0.04-0.15
0.82-0.04150.10650.01-0.04-0.18
0.78-0.0415.50.13730.01-0.04-0.22
0.72-0.04160.17890.01-0.04-0.28
0.63-0.0416.50.22720.01-0.04-0.37
0.51-0.04170.25450.01-0.04-0.49
0.39-0.0417.50.23410.01-0.04-0.61
0.31-0.04180.19400.01-0.04-0.70
0.25-0.0418.50.15810.01-0.04-0.75
0.21-0.04190.13040.01-0.04-0.79
0.16-0.04200.09320.01-0.04-0.84
0.13-0.04210.07050.01-0.04-0.88
0.10-0.04220.05570.00-0.04-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 24 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot5121517.519.59500
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

spot31114.518223215K15K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 52K call contracts, 17K 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: BEKE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk