Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 12:50 AM ET

BMO max pain

Spot (delayed)$185.81
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$175-5.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.93±2.1% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.282K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$175largest call OI
Put wall$175largest put OI
IV3021.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$358Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $185

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$175-5.8%5d
Fri, Sep 18$160-13.9%33d
Fri, Oct 16$190+2.3%61d
Fri, Nov 20$150-19.3%96d
Fri, Dec 18$175-5.8%124d
Fri, Jan 15$145-22.0%152d
Fri, Mar 19$160-13.9%215d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot175120140160180200220$10M$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 — 175 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot175120140155170185200717717
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BMO 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

spot1751201401551701852004646
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot16016817618419220070%17%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 18.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 185145160175190220+$566K$566K
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
1.000.001500.00020.00-0.000.00
1.000.001550.00010.00-0.00-0.00
1.000.001600.00020.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.001650.00070.00-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.011700.00280.00-0.02-0.01
0.97-0.031750.01210.01-0.04-0.05
0.87-0.101800.04460.06-0.10-0.16
0.55-0.161850.07990.10-0.15-0.47
0.21-0.121900.05280.08-0.12-0.79
0.07-0.061950.02170.04-0.06-0.93
0.03-0.032000.00830.02-0.03-0.97
0.00-0.002200.00030.00-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 17 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1301451601751902208030
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

spot45801151501852403K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 12K 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: BMO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk