Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 9:30 PM ET

BTCO max pain

Spot (delayed)$62.57
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$40-36.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.58±8.9% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.1517 puts / 110 calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3029.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$6Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$62-0.9%6d
Fri, Sep 18$40-36.1%34d
Fri, Dec 18$64+2.3%125d
Fri, Mar 19$72+15.1%216d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot4035547392111130$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 — 40 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot4035557482981302020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BTCO open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

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, Sep 18

spot40355574829813011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot40587694112130133%32%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 33.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot3555748298130+$2K$2K
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, Sep 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.02350.00340.01-0.02-0.03
0.95-0.03400.00530.02-0.03-0.05
0.93-0.03450.00860.03-0.03-0.07
0.90-0.03500.01460.04-0.03-0.10
0.83-0.03550.02680.05-0.03-0.17
0.69-0.03600.05360.07-0.03-0.32
0.38-0.03650.06620.07-0.03-0.64
0.20-0.03700.03750.06-0.03-0.81
0.15-0.03740.02530.04-0.03-0.87
0.13-0.03760.02150.04-0.03-0.89
0.11-0.03800.01620.04-0.03-0.91
0.10-0.03810.01530.03-0.03-0.91
0.10-0.03820.01440.03-0.03-0.92
0.07-0.03900.00970.03-0.03-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 21 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3556668093120210
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

spot35617181911052121
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 140 call contracts, 45 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: BTCO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk