Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 10:19 PM ET

IMKTA max pain

Spot (delayed)$85.78
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$70-18.4% vs spot
Put/Call OI0.1225 puts / 211 calls
Call wall$85largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3030.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$168Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $85

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$70-18.4%3d
Fri, Sep 18$70-18.4%31d
Fri, Nov 20$65-24.2%94d
Fri, Feb 19$85-0.9%185d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot706573818997105$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 — 70 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot70658090100153153
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IMKTA 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

spot706580901001212
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot6573818997105232%44%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 71.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 85658595105+$157K$157K
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 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.02650.00220.00-0.02-0.01
0.98-0.03700.00460.00-0.04-0.01
0.91-0.10800.03500.01-0.10-0.09
0.62-0.19850.13940.03-0.19-0.38
0.11-0.10900.05760.01-0.10-0.89
0.03-0.04950.01610.01-0.04-0.97
0.02-0.031000.00650.00-0.02-0.99
0.01-0.021050.00320.00-0.02-0.99

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

spot557080901001101860
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

spot406080100120560560
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 792 call contracts, 71 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: IMKTA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk