Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 12:14 AM ET

BSET max pain

Spot (delayed)$19.12
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$20+4.6% vs spot
Put/Call OI0.285 puts / 18 calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV3060.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$886per 1% move · flip ≈ $20

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$20+4.6%6d
Fri, Sep 18$22.5+17.7%34d
Fri, Oct 16$15-21.5%62d
Fri, Jan 15$17.5-8.5%153d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot205912161923$1M$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 21

spot20517.52022.51212
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BSET 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

spot20517.52022.511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 20517.52022.5+$818$818
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
0.99-0.0250.00200.00-0.02-0.01
0.78-0.0517.50.11950.01-0.05-0.22
0.37-0.06200.18650.01-0.06-0.64
0.17-0.0522.50.08580.01-0.05-0.83

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1517.52022.5301000
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.530101101
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 158 call contracts, 32 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: BSET workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk