Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 2:21 AM ET

BTG max pain

Spot (delayed)$5.07
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$4-21.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.4±7.9% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI0.29806 puts / 3K calls
Call wall$5.5largest call OI
Put wall$4.5largest put OI
IV3045.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$29Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $3.5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 14$4-21.1%today
Fri, Aug 21$4.5-11.2%7d
Fri, Aug 28$4-21.1%14d
Fri, Sep 4$3-40.8%21d
Fri, Sep 11$0.5-90.1%28d
Fri, Sep 18$4-21.1%35d
Fri, Sep 25$0.5-90.1%42d
Fri, Oct 16$4-21.1%63d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot4124679$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 — 4 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot40.51.53.54.55.57.51K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BTG open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 28.

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 28

spot40.51.53.54.55.57.51010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot456789151%47%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 48.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spotflip 3.50.51.53.54.55.57.5+$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, Aug 28

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.000.50.00310.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0010.00720.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.001.50.01290.00-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.0020.02140.00-0.01-0.03
0.93-0.013.50.09370.00-0.01-0.07
0.90-0.0140.17050.00-0.01-0.10
0.82-0.014.50.35760.00-0.01-0.18
0.59-0.0150.80070.00-0.01-0.41
0.28-0.015.50.54650.00-0.01-0.72
0.18-0.0160.31340.00-0.01-0.83
0.08-0.017.50.11520.00-0.01-0.93
0.05-0.0190.06340.00-0.00-0.96

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

spot0.52.54.56.591219K0
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

spot0.52.54.56.58.511103K103K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 525K call contracts, 169K 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: BTG workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk