Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 7, 3:40 AM ET

KVUE max pain

Spot (delayed)$19.04
Max pain · Fri, Aug 7$19-0.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.22±1.2% by Fri, Aug 7
Put/Call OI2.384K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$20.5largest call OI
Put wall$19largest put OI
IV3021.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$391Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $16

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 7$19-0.2%today
Fri, Aug 14$19-0.2%7d
Fri, Aug 21$19-0.2%14d
Fri, Aug 28$17.5-8.1%21d
Fri, Sep 4$18-5.5%28d
Fri, Sep 11$18-5.5%35d
Fri, Sep 18$18-5.5%42d
Fri, Nov 20$18-5.5%105d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1951015202530$5M$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 — 19 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 7

spot19513.51618.52123.51K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KVUE open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 7.

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 7

spot19513.51618.52123.53434
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 7

spot171818192021112%28%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 7

spotflip 1615.51718.52021.523+$407K$407K
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 7

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.0015.50.00080.000.00
1.00160.00170.000.00
1.0016.50.00380.00-0.00
1.00170.00920.000.00-0.00
0.99-0.0017.50.02540.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.00180.08330.00-0.00-0.02
0.93-0.0118.50.33620.00-0.01-0.08
0.61-0.09191.12320.00-0.09-0.39
0.16-0.0319.50.61060.00-0.04-0.85
0.04-0.01200.17590.00-0.01-0.97
0.01-0.0020.50.05920.00-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.00210.02350.00-0.01-1.00
0.00-0.0021.50.01060.00-0.01-1.00
0.000.00220.0053-0.01-1.00
0.000.0022.50.0028-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 29 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot51315.51820.5236K0
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

spot31316.52023.53234K34K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 144K call contracts, 56K 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: KVUE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk