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Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Jul 31, 11:11 PM ET

CM max pain

Spot (delayed)$118.55
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$115-3.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.23±4.4% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.792K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$115largest call OI
Put wall$115largest put OI
IV3021.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$294Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $120

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 21$115-3.0%20d
Fri, Sep 18$100-15.6%48d
Fri, Dec 18$115-3.0%139d
Fri, Jan 15$105-11.4%167d
Fri, Mar 19$100-15.6%230d
Fri, Jan 21$110-7.2%538d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot11595103111119127135$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 — 115 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot115951051151251351K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CM 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

spot1159510511512513533
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot9510311111912713577%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 12095105115125135+$248K$248K
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
1.00-0.00950.00130.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.011000.00360.01-0.01-0.01
0.96-0.021050.00970.02-0.02-0.04
0.90-0.031100.02430.05-0.03-0.11
0.73-0.051150.04960.10-0.05-0.27
0.43-0.061200.06490.11-0.06-0.57
0.16-0.031250.04140.07-0.04-0.87
0.04-0.011300.01360.02-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.001350.00330.01-1.00

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

spot70901001201402K0
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

spot3057.57592.51201555K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 11K call contracts, 12K 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: CM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk