Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 9:39 PM ET

DAVE max pain

Spot (delayed)$333.14
Max pain · Fri, Sep 4$345+3.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$36.1±10.8% by Fri, Sep 4
Put/Call OI24.981K puts / 42 calls
Call wall$600largest call OI
Put wall$345largest put OI
IV3058.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.0Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$320-3.9%3d
Fri, Aug 28$365+9.6%10d
Fri, Sep 4$345+3.6%17d
Fri, Sep 11$305-8.4%24d
Fri, Sep 18$310-6.9%31d
Fri, Sep 25$290-12.9%38d
Fri, Oct 2$290-12.9%45d
Fri, Oct 16$270-19.0%59d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot345235308381454527600$11M$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 — 345 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot345235280330360400520991991
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DAVE open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 4.

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, Sep 4

spot34523528033036040052077
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot235308381454527600147%57%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 63.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 4

spot240280330357.5390460+$1.0M$1.0M
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, Sep 4

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.87-0.292850.00430.15-0.29-0.13
0.85-0.312900.00490.17-0.32-0.15
0.80-0.373000.00620.20-0.38-0.20
0.73-0.423100.00750.24-0.43-0.27
0.69-0.453150.00810.25-0.45-0.31
0.60-0.483250.00910.28-0.49-0.40
0.56-0.493300.00930.28-0.50-0.45
0.53-0.50332.50.00940.29-0.50-0.47
0.51-0.503350.00940.29-0.50-0.49
0.46-0.503400.00940.29-0.50-0.54
0.42-0.493450.00920.28-0.49-0.58
0.34-0.473550.00850.26-0.47-0.67
0.32-0.46357.50.00820.26-0.46-0.68
0.30-0.453600.00800.25-0.45-0.70
0.27-0.423650.00750.24-0.43-0.74

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 37 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot170270327.53654304851K0
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

spot201602203203804704K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 14K call contracts, 14K 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: DAVE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk