Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 11:12 PM ET

EQX max pain

Spot (delayed)$11.6
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$10-13.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.13±9.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.1911K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$10largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3060.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$33Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$10-13.8%5d
Fri, Sep 18$10-13.8%33d
Fri, Oct 16$10-13.8%61d
Fri, Jan 15$7.5-35.3%152d
Fri, Jan 21$7.5-35.3%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot103711151923$12M$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot102.57.512.517.59K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)EQX 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

spot102.57.512.517.5141141
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot81012141618239%57%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 61.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 557.51012.51517.5+$71K$71K
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
1.002.50.00010.000.00
1.000.0050.00030.000.00
1.00-0.007.50.00350.00-0.00-0.00
0.95-0.01100.09660.00-0.01-0.06
0.24-0.0312.50.27180.01-0.03-0.77
0.04-0.01150.04860.00-0.01-0.96
0.01-0.0017.50.01180.00-0.00-0.99
0.000.0022.50.00140.00-1.00

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

spot2.57.512.517.522.53015K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.53043K43K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 146K call contracts, 53K 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: EQX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk