Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 3:57 AM ET

COST max pain

Spot (delayed)$950.15
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$950-0.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$43.75±4.6% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI2.9410K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$1,045largest call OI
Put wall$785largest put OI
IV3022.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$7.1Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedThu, Sep 24usually after the close

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$947.5-0.3%1d
Fri, Aug 14$945-0.5%8d
Fri, Aug 21$950-0.0%15d
Fri, Aug 28$950-0.0%22d
Fri, Sep 4$925-2.6%29d
Fri, Sep 11$915-3.7%36d
Fri, Sep 18$940-1.1%43d
Fri, Oct 16$945-0.5%71d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Sep 24)

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot95054066879692410521180$266M$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 — 950 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot9505407358008959501025905905
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)COST open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 28.

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 28

spot9505407358008959501025105105
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot5807008209401060118089%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot6507708509259901120+$1.6M$1.6M
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 28

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.72-0.409150.00610.80-0.41-0.28
0.69-0.429200.00650.84-0.43-0.32
0.66-0.449250.00680.88-0.45-0.35
0.62-0.459300.00700.90-0.46-0.39
0.58-0.469350.00720.92-0.47-0.42
0.55-0.479400.00730.94-0.48-0.46
0.51-0.479450.00730.94-0.48-0.50
0.47-0.479500.00730.94-0.48-0.53
0.44-0.479550.00730.93-0.48-0.57
0.40-0.469600.00710.92-0.47-0.61
0.34-0.439700.00670.87-0.45-0.68
0.31-0.429750.00640.83-0.43-0.71
0.22-0.369900.00540.71-0.37-0.79
0.20-0.349950.00500.67-0.35-0.82
0.18-0.3110000.00470.63-0.33-0.84

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

spot480770885950101511503K0
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

spot480660830935102012409K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 148K call contracts, 194K 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: COST workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk