Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 7, 4:01 PM ET

BHP max pain

Spot (delayed)$90.16
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$85-5.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.9±6.5% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.4315K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$90largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3039.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$688Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $92.5

Event risk before this expiration: CPI release Wed, Aug 12 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$85-5.7%14d
Fri, Sep 18$75-16.8%42d
Fri, Nov 20$82.5-8.5%105d
Fri, Dec 18$82.5-8.5%133d
Fri, Jan 15$60-33.5%161d
Fri, Feb 19$85-5.7%196d
Fri, Mar 19$90-0.2%224d
Thu, Jun 17$75-16.8%314d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8538567593112130$57M$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 — 85 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot8537.552.567.582.597.51253K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BHP 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

spot8537.552.567.582.597.51255050
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot43607895113130159%41%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 41.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 92.537.552.567.582.597.5125+$918K$918K
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
0.97-0.0272.50.00600.01-0.02-0.03
0.96-0.03750.00900.02-0.03-0.04
0.94-0.0477.50.01330.02-0.04-0.06
0.90-0.05800.01970.03-0.05-0.10
0.85-0.0782.50.02850.04-0.07-0.15
0.77-0.08850.03910.05-0.08-0.23
0.66-0.1087.50.04900.07-0.10-0.34
0.53-0.10900.05420.07-0.10-0.47
0.40-0.1092.50.05220.07-0.10-0.60
0.29-0.09950.04490.06-0.09-0.72
0.20-0.0897.50.03570.05-0.08-0.80
0.14-0.061000.02710.04-0.06-0.87
0.07-0.041050.01490.02-0.04-0.94
0.04-0.031100.00810.01-0.03-0.97
0.02-0.021150.00460.01-0.01-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 32 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot47.56072.58597.512015K0
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

spot2542.56077.59512535K35K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 91K call contracts, 88K 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: BHP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk