Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 5, 11:13 PM ET

GS max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,060
Max pain · Fri, Aug 14$1,050-1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$46.1±4.3% by Fri, Aug 14
Put/Call OI1.277K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$1,240largest call OI
Put wall$970largest put OI
IV3033.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.0Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $1,160

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 7$1,030-2.9%2d
Fri, Aug 14$1,050-1.0%9d
Fri, Aug 21$1,000-5.7%16d
Fri, Aug 28$1,055-0.5%23d
Fri, Sep 4$1,035-2.4%30d
Fri, Sep 11$1,055-0.5%37d
Fri, Sep 18$955-9.9%44d
Fri, Oct 16$1,000-5.7%72d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1050540700860102011801340$295M$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 — 1050 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 14

spot1050540895975103010801120594594
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GS open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 14.

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 14

spot1050540895975103010801120166166
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 14

spot75587298911061223134092%31%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 34.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 14

spotflip 1160830930100010501092.51150+$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 14

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.75-1.0510250.00550.54-1.06-0.26
0.72-1.1110300.00580.56-1.12-0.28
0.69-1.1610350.00610.59-1.17-0.31
0.66-1.2110400.00630.61-1.22-0.35
0.62-1.2410450.00650.63-1.25-0.38
0.59-1.2710500.00670.65-1.28-0.41
0.56-1.2910550.00680.66-1.30-0.45
0.52-1.3010600.00690.66-1.31-0.48
0.49-1.3110650.00690.67-1.32-0.52
0.45-1.3010700.00680.66-1.31-0.55
0.42-1.2810750.00680.65-1.29-0.58
0.39-1.2510800.00660.64-1.26-0.62
0.36-1.2210850.00640.62-1.22-0.65
0.34-1.201087.50.00630.61-1.20-0.66
0.33-1.1710900.00620.60-1.18-0.68

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

spot54080092010051082.511554K0
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

spot4507709059901100132012K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 250K call contracts, 218K 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: GS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk