Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 5:40 AM ET

CRESY max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.6
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$12.5+17.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1±9.4% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.01798 puts / 794 calls
Call wall$12.5largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3041.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$14Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$12.5+17.9%6d
Fri, Sep 18$12.5+17.9%34d
Fri, Nov 20$10-5.7%97d
Fri, Feb 19$10-5.7%188d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot12.55912161923$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 — 12.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot12.55101520684684
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CRESY 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

spot12.5510152011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot579111315289%54%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 78.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot5101520+$20K$20K
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
1.00-0.0250.00290.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.017.50.04500.00-0.01-0.04
0.78-0.02100.38130.01-0.02-0.24
0.05-0.0112.50.09590.00-0.01-0.94
0.01-0.00150.02220.00-0.00-0.98
0.01-0.0017.50.00960.00-0.98
0.01-0.00200.00530.00-0.99
0.00-0.0022.50.00340.00-0.99

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

spot51015202K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.52K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 1K 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: CRESY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk