Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 2:37 AM ET

CGAU max pain

Spot (delayed)$21.81
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$10-54.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.51±6.9% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.0657 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$17.5largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3055.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$12Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $17.5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$10-54.1%3d
Fri, Sep 18$2.5-88.5%31d
Fri, Oct 16$17.5-19.8%59d
Fri, Jan 15$12.5-42.7%150d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot103814192530$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot102.57.512.517.522.530567567
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CGAU 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

spot102.57.512.517.522.530210210
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot151821242730289%68%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 76.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 17.51517.52022.52530+$8K$8K
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
1.005
1.007.50.000.00
1.00100.00010.000.00
1.0012.50.00030.000.00
1.00150.00030.00-0.00-0.00
1.000.0017.50.00400.00-0.00-0.01
0.95-0.02200.09610.00-0.02-0.07
0.34-0.0622.50.27570.01-0.06-0.67
0.06-0.02250.06520.00-0.02-0.95
0.00-0.00300.00470.000.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 11 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2.57.512.517.522.5303K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.5303K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 2K 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: CGAU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk