Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 11:18 PM ET

BWET max pain

Spot (delayed)$379.12
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$295-22.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$37.9±10.0% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI2.40264 puts / 110 calls
Call wall$280largest call OI
Put wall$200largest put OI
IV3098.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$20Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $380

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$295-22.2%4d
Fri, Sep 18$200-47.2%32d
Fri, Oct 16$235-38.0%60d
Fri, Nov 20$200-47.2%95d
Fri, Dec 18$250-34.1%123d
Fri, Mar 19$335-11.6%214d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot29585155225295365435$4M$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 — 295 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot295851502002603303806363
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BWET 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

spot295851502002603303803030
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot199246293341388435334%78%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 88.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 380220255290335365400+$10K$10K
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
0.75-1.413450.00630.16-1.32-0.27
0.72-1.473500.00670.17-1.38-0.30
0.69-1.533550.00710.18-1.43-0.34
0.65-1.573600.00740.19-1.47-0.37
0.61-1.593650.00770.20-1.50-0.41
0.57-1.603700.00790.20-1.51-0.45
0.53-1.593750.00800.20-1.51-0.48
0.49-1.573800.00810.21-1.49-0.52
0.41-1.483900.00800.20-1.40-0.60
0.37-1.413950.00780.20-1.34-0.64
0.33-1.334000.00750.19-1.27-0.67
0.29-1.254050.00720.18-1.19-0.71
0.26-1.154100.00680.17-1.09-0.74
0.23-1.054150.00640.16-1.00-0.77
0.20-0.954200.00590.14-0.90-0.80

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 59 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot80230280330375420540
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

spot241001702402803302K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 590 call contracts, 5K 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: BWET workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk