Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 11:43 PM ET

CORN max pain

Spot (delayed)$18.26
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$17-6.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.43±2.3% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.024K puts / 154K calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$16largest put OI
IV3017.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$7.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $16

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$17-6.9%5d
Fri, Sep 18$18-1.4%33d
Fri, Nov 20$17-6.9%96d
Fri, Feb 19$16-12.4%187d
Fri, Mar 19$17-6.9%215d
Fri, Dec 17$22+20.5%488d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1781319243035$203M$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 — 17 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot178121620242828K28K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CORN 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

spot1781216202428842842
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot16171819202157%18%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 17.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 1681216202428+$5.0M$5.0M
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
1.000.00110.00040.000.00
1.000.00120.00080.00-0.00
1.000.00130.00160.000.00-0.00
1.000.00140.00330.000.00-0.00
1.00-0.00150.00800.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00160.02360.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.00170.09870.00-0.00-0.03
0.74-0.01180.74240.01-0.01-0.26
0.15-0.01190.34720.01-0.01-0.86
0.05-0.01200.10500.00-0.01-0.95
0.02-0.00210.04440.00-0.00-0.98
0.01-0.00220.02270.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.00230.01300.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.00240.00810.00-0.00-1.00
0.00-0.00250.00540.00-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot7111519232751K0
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

spot7111519232751K51K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 276K call contracts, 6K 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: CORN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk