Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 3:01 AM ET

DE max pain

Spot (delayed)$615.89
Max pain · Fri, Aug 7$590-4.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$14.7±2.4% by Fri, Aug 7
Put/Call OI1.304K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$655largest call OI
Put wall$450largest put OI
IV3038.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $610
Earnings · expectedThu, Aug 13usually before the open

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 7$590-4.2%1d
Fri, Aug 14$605-1.8%8d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Aug 13)
Fri, Aug 21$600-2.6%15d
Fri, Aug 28$620+0.7%22d
Fri, Sep 4$650+5.5%29d
Fri, Sep 11$620+0.7%36d
Fri, Sep 18$580-5.8%43d
Fri, Dec 18$520-15.6%134d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot590310410510610710810$64M$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 — 590 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 7

spot590310380535575620675497497
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DE open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 7.

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 7

spot590310380535575620675189189
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 7

spot450522594666738810149%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 39.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 7

spotflip 610515557.5580602.5637.5670+$1.5M$1.5M
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 7

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.92-0.635850.00740.07-0.64-0.08
0.88-0.885900.01010.09-0.88-0.12
0.83-1.185950.01330.12-1.19-0.17
0.80-1.35597.50.01510.13-1.36-0.21
0.76-1.526000.01680.14-1.53-0.24
0.72-1.68602.50.01850.15-1.70-0.29
0.56-2.016100.02210.18-2.05-0.44
0.45-2.006150.02250.18-2.06-0.56
0.34-1.816200.02090.17-1.87-0.67
0.25-1.496250.01790.15-1.52-0.76
0.18-1.136300.01430.12-1.13-0.84
0.10-0.69637.50.00940.08-0.65-0.91
0.08-0.576400.00800.07-0.54-0.93
0.06-0.396450.00570.05-0.37-0.96
0.04-0.276500.00410.04-0.27-0.97

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

spot3105105906256707304590
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

spot2103604805706407603K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 30K call contracts, 30K 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: DE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk