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

BOIL max pain

Spot (delayed)$20.28
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$20-1.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.59±7.8% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI0.222K puts / 8K calls
Call wall$21largest call OI
Put wall$22.5largest put OI
IV3056.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$452Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $17.5

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

spot20151923283236$11M$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot201518212427324K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BOIL open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 28.

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 28

spot20151821242732394394
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot151923283236172%52%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 60.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spotflip 17.5151821242732+$289K$289K
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 28

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.93-0.02170.05760.01-0.02-0.08
0.90-0.0217.50.07460.01-0.02-0.10
0.87-0.03180.09680.01-0.03-0.14
0.82-0.0318.50.12500.01-0.03-0.18
0.76-0.03190.15810.01-0.03-0.24
0.68-0.0419.50.19050.01-0.04-0.33
0.57-0.04200.21170.01-0.04-0.43
0.47-0.0420.50.21290.01-0.04-0.53
0.37-0.04210.19580.01-0.04-0.63
0.29-0.0421.50.16990.01-0.04-0.71
0.23-0.04220.14310.01-0.04-0.77
0.19-0.0322.50.11910.01-0.03-0.81
0.15-0.03230.09900.01-0.03-0.85
0.13-0.0323.50.08260.01-0.03-0.87
0.10-0.02240.06930.01-0.02-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 35 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