Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 9:18 PM ET

HEPS max pain

Spot (delayed)$2.79
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$2.5-10.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.45±16.1% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.551K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$5largest call OI
Put wall$2.5largest put OI
IV3031.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$4Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$2.5-10.4%3d
Fri, Nov 20$2.5-10.4%94d
Fri, Feb 19$2.5-10.4%185d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot2.5345678$1M$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 — 2.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot2.52.557.52K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HEPS 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

spot2.52.557.511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Greeks by strike · Fri, Aug 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.80-0.012.50.68980.00-0.01-0.20
0.07-0.0150.13440.00-0.01-0.93
0.03-0.017.50.05620.00-0.01-0.97

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

spot2.557.53K0
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

spot2.557.53K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 1K 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: HEPS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk