Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 10:33 PM ET

CTRE max pain

Spot (delayed)$38.77
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$40+3.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.45±3.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.37289 puts / 784 calls
Call wall$45largest call OI
Put wall$40largest put OI
IV3021.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$52Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $32.5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$40+3.2%6d
Fri, Sep 18$37.5-3.3%34d
Fri, Oct 16$40+3.2%62d
Fri, Jan 15$40+3.2%153d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot40303438424650$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 — 40 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot403035404550562562
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CTRE 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

spot4030354045501111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot35373941434553%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 32.53035404550+$54K$54K
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
0.99-0.00300.00370.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0132.50.01030.00-0.01-0.01
0.96-0.01350.03560.00-0.01-0.04
0.83-0.0337.50.18110.01-0.03-0.17
0.19-0.03400.20540.01-0.03-0.81
0.04-0.0142.50.04420.01-0.01-0.96
0.02-0.01450.01510.00-0.01-0.98
0.01-0.0047.50.00670.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.00500.00350.00-0.00-0.99

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

spot30354045506900
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

spot2027.53542.550728728
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 822 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: CTRE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk