Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 10:37 PM ET

EPD max pain

Spot (delayed)$38.45
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$38-1.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.59±1.5% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.313K puts / 11K calls
Call wall$39largest call OI
Put wall$35largest put OI
IV3016.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4.7Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $30

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$38-1.2%3d
Fri, Aug 28$38-1.2%10d
Fri, Sep 4$38-1.2%17d
Fri, Sep 11$38-1.2%24d
Fri, Sep 18$37-3.8%31d
Fri, Sep 25$38-1.2%38d
Fri, Oct 2$39+1.4%45d
Fri, Dec 18$35-9.0%122d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot38202631374248$9M$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 — 38 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot382029343740446K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)EPD 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

spot38202934374044441441
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot32353740424572%15%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 17.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 30293436.53941.547+$3.8M$3.8M
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
1.00-0.00350.00810.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.0035.50.01400.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00360.02520.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0136.50.04800.00-0.01-0.02
0.95-0.01370.09650.00-0.01-0.05
0.90-0.0237.50.19660.01-0.02-0.10
0.77-0.03380.34840.01-0.03-0.23
0.56-0.0438.50.46120.02-0.04-0.44
0.33-0.04390.44710.01-0.04-0.68
0.13-0.0239.50.27930.01-0.02-0.88
0.06-0.01400.13580.01-0.01-0.95
0.04-0.0140.50.08560.00-0.01-0.97
0.04-0.01410.06160.00-0.01-0.97
0.03-0.0141.50.04720.00-0.01-0.98
0.03-0.01420.03770.00-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 34 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot203034.538.541.5486K0
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

spot152633.537.541.54856K56K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 188K call contracts, 42K 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: EPD workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk