Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 7, 12:28 AM ET

CAT max pain

Spot (delayed)$862.06
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$880+2.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$58.75±6.8% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.1327K puts / 24K calls
Call wall$1,520largest call OI
Put wall$600largest put OI
IV3042.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$14.6Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 7$860-0.2%1d
Fri, Aug 14$850-1.4%8d
Fri, Aug 21$880+2.1%15d
Fri, Aug 28$880+2.1%22d
Fri, Sep 4$860-0.2%29d
Fri, Sep 11$900+4.4%36d
Fri, Sep 18$790-8.4%43d
Fri, Oct 16$870+0.9%71d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot880330576822106813141560$1.1B$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 — 880 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot88033059072083092010803K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CAT 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

spot8803305907208309201080181181
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot330576822106813141560163%36%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 42.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot5907007908709501080+$3.7M$3.7M
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
0.84-0.607900.00320.43-0.63-0.17
0.80-0.698000.00360.49-0.71-0.20
0.76-0.778100.00410.54-0.79-0.24
0.72-0.848200.00450.59-0.86-0.28
0.67-0.908300.00480.63-0.92-0.33
0.62-0.958400.00510.66-0.96-0.38
0.57-0.988500.00530.69-0.99-0.43
0.52-0.998600.00540.69-1.00-0.49
0.46-0.988700.00540.69-0.99-0.54
0.41-0.968800.00530.68-0.96-0.59
0.38-0.948850.00520.67-0.94-0.62
0.36-0.928900.00510.65-0.92-0.65
0.31-0.869000.00480.62-0.86-0.69
0.27-0.809100.00450.57-0.79-0.74
0.23-0.739200.00410.53-0.72-0.78

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot360680800887.597011802K0
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

spot17546068083095011609K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 154K call contracts, 163K 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: CAT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk