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

DE max pain

Spot (delayed)$615.89
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$600-2.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$44.45±7.2% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.053K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$630largest call OI
Put wall$540largest put OI
IV3038.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $660
Earnings · expectedThu, Aug 13usually before the open

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$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

spot600440514588662736810$47M$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 — 600 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot600440540595620665760525525
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DE 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

spot6004405405956206657609090
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot44051458866273681084%38%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 43.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 660440540595620665760+$724K$724K
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
0.64-0.65597.50.00680.48-0.66-0.37
0.62-0.666000.00690.49-0.67-0.39
0.60-0.67602.50.00700.50-0.68-0.40
0.58-0.676050.00710.50-0.68-0.42
0.57-0.68607.50.00720.51-0.69-0.44
0.55-0.686100.00720.51-0.69-0.46
0.53-0.68612.50.00730.51-0.69-0.48
0.51-0.696150.00730.51-0.69-0.49
0.49-0.68617.50.00730.51-0.69-0.51
0.48-0.686200.00730.51-0.69-0.53
0.46-0.68622.50.00730.51-0.69-0.55
0.44-0.676250.00730.51-0.68-0.57
0.40-0.666300.00720.50-0.67-0.60
0.37-0.646350.00700.48-0.65-0.64
0.34-0.626400.00680.47-0.63-0.67

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 55 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