Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 28, 3:08 PM ET

HCC max pain

Spot (delayed)$109.11
Max pain · Fri, May 21$90-17.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$37.15±34.0% by Fri, May 21
Put/Call OI0.006 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$110largest call OI
Put wall$85largest put OI
IV3043.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$228Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $85

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 18$90-17.5%21d
Fri, Oct 16$80-26.7%49d
Fri, Jan 15$95-12.9%140d
Fri, Apr 16$80-26.7%231d
Fri, May 21$90-17.5%266d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot90708090100110120$2M$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 — 90 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21

spot9070851101202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HCC open contracts per strike for Fri, May 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, May 21

spot90708511012033
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21

spot70809010011012056%50%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 50.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, May 21

spotflip 857085110120+$220K$220K
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, May 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.88-0.02700.00360.18-0.02-0.11
0.83-0.02800.00490.23-0.02-0.17
0.80-0.02850.00560.26-0.03-0.20
0.76-0.03900.00630.29-0.03-0.24
0.60-0.031100.00810.36-0.03-0.40
0.56-0.031150.00840.37-0.04-0.45
0.52-0.031200.00850.37-0.04-0.49

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

spot4065901151409230
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

spot4065901151408K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7K call contracts, 10K 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: HCC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk