Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 11:41 AM ET

INCY max pain

Spot (delayed)$119.48
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$115-3.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.1±5.9% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.511K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$125largest call OI
Put wall$110largest put OI
IV3034.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$461Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $125

Event risk before this expiration: 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 21$115-3.7%14d
Fri, Sep 18$110-7.9%42d
Fri, Dec 18$110-7.9%133d
Fri, Jan 15$100-16.3%161d
Fri, Mar 19$120+0.4%224d
Fri, Dec 17$75-37.2%497d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot115557391109127145$7M$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 — 115 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot1155595110125140675675
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)INCY 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

spot1155595110125140264264
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot9510511512513514592%28%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 12595105115125135145+$382K$382K
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
1.00650.00
1.00750.000.000.00
1.00-0.00950.00150.01-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.011000.00390.01-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.031050.00940.02-0.03-0.04
0.89-0.051100.02080.05-0.05-0.11
0.75-0.091150.03690.08-0.09-0.26
0.53-0.111200.04680.10-0.11-0.48
0.32-0.101250.04120.09-0.10-0.70
0.16-0.071300.02740.06-0.07-0.86
0.08-0.041350.01540.04-0.05-0.96
0.04-0.021400.00800.02-0.03-1.00
0.02-0.011450.00410.01-0.03-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 14 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot457592.51101351601K0
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

spot305070901201606K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 15K 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: INCY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk