Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 11:20 PM ET

GEN max pain

Spot (delayed)$28.85
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$26-9.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.5±5.2% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.603K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$29largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV3030.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$606Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $18

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$26-9.9%4d
Fri, Sep 18$27-6.4%32d
Fri, Oct 16$25-13.3%60d
Fri, Dec 18$25-13.3%123d
Fri, Jan 15$26-9.9%151d
Fri, Dec 17$25-13.3%487d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot26172124283135$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 — 26 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot2617212529332K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GEN 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

spot261721252933103103
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot202326293235152%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 38.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 181721252933+$445K$445K
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
0.99-0.01220.00800.00-0.01-0.02
0.99-0.01230.01320.00-0.01-0.03
0.98-0.01240.02340.00-0.01-0.04
0.96-0.01250.04390.00-0.02-0.06
0.93-0.02260.08830.01-0.02-0.10
0.84-0.03270.18180.01-0.03-0.18
0.63-0.04280.31050.01-0.04-0.39
0.32-0.03290.27880.01-0.04-0.69
0.15-0.02300.15530.01-0.02-0.87
0.07-0.01310.08110.01-0.01-0.94
0.04-0.01320.04430.00-0.01-0.97
0.02-0.01330.02570.00-0.01-0.98
0.01-0.01340.01560.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.00350.00990.00-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1018222630347K0
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

spot10172227323712K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 33K call contracts, 6K 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: GEN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk