Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 5:11 PM ET

GLD max pain

Spot (delayed)$400.39
Max pain · Wed, Aug 19$399-0.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.81±1.0% by Wed, Aug 19
Put/Call OI0.7813K puts / 17K calls
Call wall$418largest call OI
Put wall$388largest put OI
IV3021.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$235Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Wed, Aug 19$399-0.3%1d
Thu, Aug 20$404+0.9%2d
Fri, Aug 21$385-3.8%3d
Mon, Aug 24$404+0.9%6d
Tue, Aug 25$407+1.7%7d
Wed, Aug 26$386-3.6%8d
Thu, Aug 27$399-0.3%9d
Fri, Aug 28$385-3.8%10d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot399362383403424444465$93M$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 — 399 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Wed, Aug 19

spot3993623803904004104204K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GLD open contracts per strike for Wed, Aug 19.

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 · Wed, Aug 19

spot3993623803904004104204K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Aug 19

spot36238039741543245083%19%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 21.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Aug 19

spot362380390400410420+$8.0M$8.0M
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 · Wed, Aug 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.91-0.233930.02860.04-0.23-0.09
0.89-0.293940.03540.04-0.29-0.11
0.85-0.393950.04360.05-0.39-0.14
0.81-0.523960.05290.06-0.52-0.19
0.76-0.683970.06270.07-0.68-0.24
0.70-0.883980.07180.08-0.88-0.30
0.62-1.073990.07900.09-1.07-0.38
0.54-1.194000.08300.09-1.19-0.46
0.46-1.194010.08290.09-1.19-0.54
0.38-1.064020.07900.09-1.06-0.62
0.30-0.874030.07190.08-0.88-0.70
0.24-0.684040.06300.07-0.68-0.76
0.19-0.514050.05340.06-0.52-0.81
0.15-0.384060.04420.05-0.39-0.86
0.11-0.294070.03600.04-0.30-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot30037038640141647014K0
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

spot200345400460520635205K205K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3.9M call contracts, 1.7M 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: GLD workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk