Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 7, 11:20 AM ET

DHT max pain

Spot (delayed)$18.35
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$17-7.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.95±10.6% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.145K puts / 36K calls
Call wall$19largest call OI
Put wall$16largest put OI
IV3043.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2.2Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $18

Event risk before this expiration: 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 21$17-7.4%14d
Fri, Sep 18$17-7.4%42d
Fri, Oct 16$18-1.9%70d
Fri, Dec 18$15-18.3%133d
Fri, Jan 15$15-18.3%161d
Fri, Jul 16$22+19.9%343d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot17121518202326$26M$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 — 17 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot17121518212415K15K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DHT 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

spot1712151821242K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot121518202326145%37%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 47.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 181215182124+$1.2M$1.2M
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
1.00-0.01120.01760.00-0.01-0.02
1.00-0.01130.03070.00-0.01-0.04
1.00-0.01140.00260.01-0.01-0.07
0.99-0.00150.02220.00-0.01-0.13
0.96-0.01160.06590.00-0.02-0.24
0.86-0.01170.17080.01-0.02-0.46
0.61-0.03180.28730.01-0.02-0.69
0.34-0.03190.24580.01-0.01-0.83
0.19-0.02200.15650.01-0.01-0.90
0.10-0.01210.09400.01-0.01-0.93
0.06-0.01220.05780.00-0.01-0.95
0.04-0.01230.03730.00-0.00-0.96
0.03-0.01240.02540.00-0.00-0.97
0.02-0.01250.01810.00-0.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot10141822263020K0
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

spot3121824303621K21K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 88K call contracts, 21K 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: DHT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk