Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 3:57 AM ET

ING max pain

Spot (delayed)$35.35
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$35-1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.1±3.1% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI3.301K puts / 317 calls
Call wall$35largest call OI
Put wall$31largest put OI
IV3023.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$61Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $35

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$35-1.0%9d
Fri, Sep 18$33-6.6%37d
Fri, Oct 16$32-9.5%65d
Fri, Jan 15$33-6.6%156d
Fri, May 21$32-9.5%282d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot35252831333639$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 — 35 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot352528313437806806
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ING 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

spot3525283134372121
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot30323435373957%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 352528313437+$71K$71K
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
1.00280.00230.00-0.00-0.00
1.000.00290.00420.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00300.00820.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00310.01670.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.01320.03590.00-0.01-0.03
0.93-0.01330.07910.01-0.01-0.07
0.83-0.02340.16620.01-0.02-0.17
0.62-0.03350.27360.02-0.03-0.38
0.34-0.03360.26890.02-0.03-0.67
0.14-0.01370.15640.01-0.02-0.87
0.05-0.01380.06980.01-0.01-0.97
0.02-0.00390.02890.00-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3032343638402K0
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

spot1522273237422K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 6K call contracts, 5K 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: ING workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk