Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 8, 11:06 PM ET

DQ max pain

Spot (delayed)$14.74
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$16+8.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.8±12.2% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI20.3112K puts / 598 calls
Call wall$17largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3063.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$30Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $8

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$16+8.6%8d
Fri, Sep 18$14-5.0%36d
Fri, Oct 16$20+35.7%64d
Fri, Jan 15$17+15.3%155d
Fri, Jan 21$15+1.8%526d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot162712162126$10M$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 — 16 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot16261014182211K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DQ 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

spot162610141822124124
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot81215192226287%57%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 77.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 881114172023+$27K$27K
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
1.00-0.0080.00240.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.0090.00520.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00100.01150.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.01110.02630.00-0.01-0.03
0.94-0.01120.06010.00-0.01-0.06
0.85-0.02130.12340.01-0.02-0.15
0.68-0.02140.19660.01-0.02-0.32
0.47-0.03150.22050.01-0.03-0.53
0.28-0.02160.18110.01-0.02-0.72
0.15-0.01170.12150.01-0.02-0.85
0.08-0.01180.07290.00-0.01-0.92
0.04-0.01190.04140.00-0.01-0.96
0.02-0.00200.02290.00-0.00-0.98
0.01-0.00210.01260.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.00220.00690.00-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 23 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot110162126323650
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

spot191725334214K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 14K call contracts, 40K 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: DQ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk