Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 11:22 AM ET

BTC max pain

Spot (delayed)$28.13
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$27-4.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.03±3.6% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.42884 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$30largest call OI
Put wall$27largest put OI
IV3033.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$111Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $28

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$27-4.0%8d
Fri, Sep 18$30+6.6%36d
Fri, Dec 18$29+3.1%127d
Fri, Jan 15$30+6.6%155d
Fri, Mar 19$29+3.1%218d
Fri, Jan 21$25-11.1%526d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot27192327313539$2M$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 — 27 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot271924283236685685
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BTC 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

spot2719242832365454
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot222529323639116%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 282225283134+$64K$64K
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
1.00200.00030.000.00
1.00220.00240.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.00230.00630.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00240.01670.00-0.00-0.01
0.96-0.01250.04290.00-0.01-0.04
0.91-0.01260.10100.01-0.01-0.10
0.77-0.03270.19820.01-0.03-0.23
0.53-0.03280.27720.02-0.03-0.48
0.27-0.03290.23580.01-0.03-0.75
0.10-0.01300.12190.01-0.01-0.93
0.03-0.01310.04580.00-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.00320.01520.00-0.01-1.00
0.00-0.00330.00500.00-0.01-1.00
0.000.00340.00170.00-0.01-1.00
0.000.00350.0006-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2027333945511K0
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

spot1526374859702K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 22K call contracts, 6K 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: BTC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk