Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 11:15 AM ET

IMSR max pain

Spot (delayed)$5.65
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$7.5+32.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.95±16.8% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.4714K puts / 30K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV3096.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$48Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$7.5+32.7%3d
Fri, Sep 18$5-11.5%31d
Fri, Nov 20$7.5+32.7%94d
Fri, Dec 18$7.5+32.7%122d
Fri, Jan 15$5-11.5%150d
Fri, Feb 19$5-11.5%185d
Fri, Jan 21$7.5+32.7%521d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot7.53712162125$31M$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 — 7.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot7.52.57.512.517.522.511K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IMSR 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

spot7.52.57.512.517.522.5179179
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot3610131720525%121%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 136.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot2.57.512.517.522.5+$66K$66K
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
0.99-0.012.50.01120.00-0.01-0.01
0.87-0.0250.24670.00-0.02-0.13
0.09-0.027.50.16070.00-0.02-0.91
0.04-0.01100.04750.00-0.01-0.97
0.02-0.0112.50.02480.00-0.01-0.98
0.01-0.01150.01610.00-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.0117.50.01180.00-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.01200.00920.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.0122.50.00760.00-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 9 strikes around the money — all 10 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2.57.512.517.522.511K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.518K18K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 64K call contracts, 20K 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: IMSR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk