Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 6:51 PM ET

GLD max pain

Spot (delayed)$399.85
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$385-3.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$11.43±2.9% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI0.5938K puts / 65K calls
Call wall$420largest call OI
Put wall$320largest put OI
IV3021.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$103.8Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $371

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Wed, Aug 19$399-0.2%1d
Thu, Aug 20$404+1.0%2d
Fri, Aug 21$385-3.7%3d
Mon, Aug 24$404+1.0%6d
Tue, Aug 25$407+1.8%7d
Wed, Aug 26$386-3.5%8d
Thu, Aug 27$399-0.2%9d
Fri, Aug 28$385-3.7%10d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot385295346397448499550$852M$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 — 385 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot38529536538039540644014K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GLD open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 28.

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 28

spot3852953653803954064404K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot29534639744849955066%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 21.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spotflip 371295365380395406440+$27.9M$27.9M
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 28

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.73-0.243920.02300.22-0.24-0.28
0.70-0.253930.02400.23-0.25-0.30
0.68-0.263940.02490.24-0.26-0.33
0.65-0.273950.02570.25-0.27-0.35
0.60-0.283970.02700.26-0.28-0.40
0.57-0.283980.02740.26-0.29-0.43
0.55-0.293990.02770.26-0.29-0.46
0.52-0.294000.02790.27-0.29-0.49
0.49-0.294010.02790.27-0.29-0.52
0.46-0.294020.02770.26-0.29-0.54
0.44-0.284030.02740.26-0.29-0.57
0.41-0.284040.02700.26-0.29-0.60
0.38-0.284050.02640.25-0.28-0.62
0.36-0.274060.02580.25-0.28-0.65
0.31-0.264080.02420.23-0.26-0.70

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