Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 3:15 AM ET

ELDN max pain

Spot (delayed)$3.6
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$5+38.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.28±35.4% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI2.4312K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$5largest call OI
Put wall$2.5largest put OI
IV3057.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$8Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $2.5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$5+38.9%7d
Fri, Sep 18$5+38.9%35d
Fri, Nov 20$2.5-30.6%98d
Fri, Feb 19$2.5-30.6%189d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot5123568$3M$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 — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot50.51.52.57.59K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ELDN 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

spot50.51.52.57.57171
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot234568637%136%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 183.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 2.50.51.52.57.5+$10K$10K
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
1.000.000.50.0028-0.00-0.00
1.000.0010.00700.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.001.50.01500.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0020.03380.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.002.50.08810.00-0.00-0.03
0.04-0.0050.13770.00-0.00-0.96
0.000.007.50.0061-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot0.51.52.57.57K0
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

spot0.51.52.57.515K15K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 13K call contracts, 24K 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: ELDN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk