Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 9:30 PM ET

BTCW max pain

Spot (delayed)$66.89
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$70+4.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.13±9.2% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.507 puts / 14 calls
Call wall$75largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3036.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$18per 1% move · flip ≈ $55

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$68+1.7%7d
Fri, Sep 18$70+4.6%35d
Fri, Dec 18$90+34.5%126d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot7045638199117135$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 — 70 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot7045708010413533
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BTCW 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

spot7045708010413511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot45638199117135104%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 55457080104135+$455$455
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
0.96-0.01450.00500.02-0.02-0.04
0.89-0.03550.01600.04-0.03-0.11
0.80-0.03600.02890.06-0.04-0.20
0.38-0.04700.04950.08-0.04-0.63
0.21-0.03750.03390.06-0.03-0.80
0.14-0.03790.02340.05-0.03-0.87
0.13-0.03800.02140.04-0.02-0.88
0.04-0.02950.00730.02-0.01-0.97
0.03-0.011020.00500.01-0.00-0.98
0.03-0.011040.00460.01-0.00-0.98
0.02-0.011150.00290.01-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot55758095104125270
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

spot45657483991202727
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 45 call contracts, 19 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: BTCW workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk