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

BTC max pain

Spot (delayed)$28.13
Max pain · Fri, Jan 21$25-11.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.5±48.0% by Fri, Jan 21
Put/Call OI0.15864 puts / 6K calls
Call wall$80largest call OI
Put wall$30largest put OI
IV3033.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$76Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

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

spot25152841546780$19M$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 — 25 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot25152433425160933933
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BTC open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 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, Jan 21

spot2515243342516022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot15284154678065%36%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 50.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot152433425160+$15K$15K
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, Jan 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.83-0.00210.01490.09-0.01-0.20
0.82-0.00220.01630.10-0.01-0.22
0.80-0.00230.01770.10-0.01-0.24
0.78-0.00240.01900.11-0.01-0.26
0.75-0.00250.02040.11-0.01-0.28
0.73-0.00260.02170.12-0.01-0.31
0.71-0.00270.02300.12-0.01-0.34
0.68-0.00280.02410.13-0.01-0.37
0.66-0.00290.02510.13-0.01-0.40
0.63-0.01300.02600.13-0.01-0.42
0.61-0.01310.02680.13-0.01-0.45
0.58-0.01320.02730.14-0.01-0.48
0.56-0.01330.02770.14-0.01-0.51
0.53-0.01340.02800.14-0.01-0.54
0.51-0.01350.02810.14-0.01-0.57

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 53 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