Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 10:31 PM ET

INVA max pain

Spot (delayed)$20.96
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$20-4.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.57±7.5% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.035 puts / 191 calls
Call wall$22.5largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3028.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$13Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$20-4.6%4d
Fri, Sep 18$20-4.6%32d
Fri, Dec 18$20-4.6%123d
Fri, Mar 19$17.5-16.5%214d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot20202224262830$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot202022.52530170170
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)INVA 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

spot202022.5253011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot202224262830220%53%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 135.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot2022.52530+$13K$13K
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
0.81-0.04200.22920.01-0.04-0.20
0.16-0.0422.50.17100.01-0.04-0.84
0.07-0.04250.05590.00-0.04-0.93
0.03-0.02300.01740.00-0.02-0.97

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

spot10152025354250
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.530426426
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 972 call contracts, 97 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: INVA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk