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Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Jul 31, 9:10 PM ET

JNJ max pain

Spot (delayed)$257.23
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$255-0.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.85±5.4% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI1.362K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$320largest call OI
Put wall$255largest put OI
IV3024.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$98Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · 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 7$255-0.9%6d
Fri, Aug 14$257.5+0.1%13d
Fri, Aug 21$257.5+0.1%20d
Fri, Aug 28$255-0.9%27d
Fri, Sep 4$260+1.1%34d
Fri, Sep 11$255-0.9%41d
Fri, Sep 18$230-10.6%48d
Fri, Oct 16$210-18.4%76d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot255155188221254287320$12M$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 — 255 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot255155210235260285310250250
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)JNJ open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 28.

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 28

spot255155210235260285310465465
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot19021624226829432050%15%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot155210235260285310+$295K$295K
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 28

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.032200.00320.05-0.03-0.04
0.96-0.042250.00450.07-0.04-0.06
0.94-0.042300.00660.09-0.05-0.08
0.90-0.062350.00950.12-0.07-0.12
0.85-0.082400.01330.17-0.08-0.18
0.77-0.102450.01760.21-0.10-0.26
0.68-0.122500.02130.25-0.12-0.35
0.56-0.132550.02350.27-0.12-0.47
0.44-0.132600.02360.28-0.12-0.58
0.33-0.112650.02170.25-0.11-0.69
0.24-0.102700.01830.22-0.09-0.78
0.17-0.082750.01440.18-0.07-0.84
0.11-0.062800.01090.14-0.06-0.89
0.08-0.052850.00810.11-0.05-0.93
0.06-0.042900.00610.09-0.04-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 28 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot125180225250272.530013K0
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

spot75140205250282.533032K32K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 206K call contracts, 160K 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: JNJ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk