Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 11:20 PM ET

BW max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.39
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$10-3.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.05±10.1% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.204K puts / 21K calls
Call wall$10largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3088.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$160Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $9

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$10-3.8%5d
Fri, Aug 28$9-13.4%12d
Fri, Sep 4$9.5-8.6%19d
Fri, Sep 11$10-3.8%26d
Fri, Sep 18$10-3.8%33d
Fri, Sep 25$10.5+1.1%40d
Fri, Nov 20$11+5.9%96d
Fri, Jan 15$2.5-75.9%152d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot103916222935$41M$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot102.58.51215.521303K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BW 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

spot102.58.51215.521302K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot51015202530360%76%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 90.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 92.581114.51825+$40K$40K
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
0.96-0.0170.03360.00-0.01-0.04
0.95-0.027.50.04910.00-0.02-0.05
0.92-0.0280.07210.00-0.02-0.08
0.89-0.028.50.10580.00-0.02-0.11
0.83-0.0390.15400.00-0.03-0.17
0.75-0.039.50.21660.01-0.03-0.25
0.63-0.04100.27880.01-0.04-0.37
0.48-0.0410.50.30420.01-0.04-0.52
0.34-0.04110.27500.01-0.04-0.66
0.24-0.0311.50.22090.01-0.03-0.76
0.17-0.03120.17020.00-0.03-0.83
0.13-0.0212.50.13080.00-0.02-0.87
0.10-0.02130.10190.00-0.02-0.90
0.08-0.0213.50.08070.00-0.02-0.92
0.07-0.02140.06500.00-0.02-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 37 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2.5912.51622303K0
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

spot0.55913172312K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 79K call contracts, 26K 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: BW workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk