Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 11:30 PM ET

KC max pain

Spot (delayed)$11.45
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$15+31.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.4±12.2% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.654K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$15largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3078.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$22Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $10

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$15+31.0%3d
Fri, Sep 18$12.5+9.2%31d
Fri, Nov 20$10-12.7%94d
Fri, Jan 15$12.5+9.2%150d
Fri, Feb 19$10-12.7%185d
Fri, Jan 21$5-56.3%521d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1551015202530$8M$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 — 15 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot155101520252K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KC 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

spot1551015202511K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot5913172125439%113%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 139.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 10510152025+$10K$10K
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
0.98-0.0250.00850.00-0.02-0.02
0.96-0.027.50.02850.00-0.03-0.04
0.85-0.04100.15300.00-0.04-0.15
0.30-0.0812.50.19810.00-0.08-0.70
0.11-0.05150.08040.00-0.05-0.89
0.05-0.0317.50.03830.00-0.03-0.95
0.03-0.02200.02020.00-0.02-0.97
0.01-0.0122.50.01140.00-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.01250.00670.00-0.01-0.99
0.00-0.00300.00260.00-0.00-1.00

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

spot5101520253K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.5303K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 12K call contracts, 6K 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: KC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk