Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 19, 2:01 PM ET

BOIL max pain

Spot (delayed)$20.28
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$19-6.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.84±4.1% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.295K puts / 16K calls
Call wall$19largest call OI
Put wall$18largest put OI
IV3056.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$507Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $18

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$19-6.3%2d
Fri, Aug 28$20-1.4%9d
Fri, Sep 4$18-11.2%16d
Fri, Sep 11$18-11.2%23d
Fri, Sep 18$20-1.4%30d
Fri, Sep 25$20-1.4%37d
Fri, Oct 2$19-6.3%44d
Fri, Dec 18$20-1.4%121d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot19152025303540$27M$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 — 19 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot191518.52225.529354K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BOIL 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

spot191518.52225.52935380380
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot151822252932250%48%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 63.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 18151821242732+$235K$235K
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
0.99-0.01170.01490.00-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.0117.50.02810.00-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.01180.05260.00-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.0218.50.09740.00-0.02-0.06
0.89-0.04190.17540.00-0.04-0.11
0.79-0.0719.50.29030.01-0.07-0.21
0.62-0.09200.39600.01-0.09-0.38
0.41-0.0920.50.40130.01-0.09-0.58
0.25-0.07210.31010.01-0.07-0.75
0.14-0.0521.50.20560.00-0.05-0.86
0.08-0.03220.12880.00-0.03-0.92
0.05-0.0222.50.07990.00-0.02-0.95
0.03-0.01230.05020.00-0.01-0.97
0.02-0.0123.50.03220.00-0.01-0.98
0.01-0.01240.02110.00-0.01-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 40 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1518.52225.529.5365K0
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

spot516.52125.530376K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 42K call contracts, 13K 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: BOIL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk