Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 2:16 AM ET

BLDP max pain

Spot (delayed)$2.66
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$3+12.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.42±15.8% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.042K puts / 53K calls
Call wall$5largest call OI
Put wall$3largest put OI
IV3081.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$12Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $1.5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$3+12.8%8d
Fri, Sep 18$3+12.8%36d
Fri, Nov 20$3+12.8%99d
Fri, Feb 19$3+12.8%190d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot313571012$37M$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 — 3 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot30.52581132K32K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BLDP 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

spot30.525811302302
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot223456292%74%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 76.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 1.51.5357+$9K$9K
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
1.000.5
1.0010.0003
1.001.50.00780.00-0.00
0.97-0.0020.16240.00-0.00-0.03
0.17-0.0130.73430.00-0.01-0.84
0.010.0040.03690.00-0.00-1.00
0.0050.0027-0.00-1.00
60.0003-0.00-1.00
70.0001-0.00-1.00
8-0.00-1.00
9-0.00-1.00
10-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 14 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot0.52581137K0
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

spot0.52581138K38K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 74K call contracts, 7K 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: BLDP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk