Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 11:17 PM ET

BMA max pain

Spot (delayed)$77.9
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$75-3.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.3±6.8% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.16130 puts / 819 calls
Call wall$80largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3051.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$138Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $75

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$75-3.7%4d
Fri, Sep 18$80+2.7%32d
Fri, Oct 16$95+22.0%60d
Fri, Jan 15$90+15.5%151d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot75708192103114125$3M$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 — 75 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot75708090100110120301301
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BMA 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

spot7570809010011012044
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot70788694102110222%38%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 57.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 75708090100110120+$70K$70K
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
0.87-0.12700.02820.02-0.12-0.13
0.68-0.16750.05640.04-0.16-0.32
0.37-0.16800.06350.04-0.16-0.63
0.16-0.11850.03630.03-0.11-0.84
0.07-0.07900.01840.01-0.07-0.93
0.04-0.05950.01000.01-0.05-0.96
0.02-0.031000.00580.01-0.03-0.98
0.01-0.021050.00370.00-0.02-0.98
0.01-0.021100.00240.00-0.02-0.99
0.01-0.011150.00170.00-0.01-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 12 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot5570851001151302K0
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

spot355575951151353K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 8K 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: BMA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk