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

KVUE max pain

Spot (delayed)$19.04
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$19-0.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.89±4.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.516K puts / 11K calls
Call wall$19largest call OI
Put wall$19largest put OI
IV3021.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.2Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $11

Event risk before this expiration: 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$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$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 — 19 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot195131719.5236K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KVUE 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

spot195131719.523221221
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot151821242730104%18%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 1191316.518.520.523.5+$918K$918K
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
0.99150.01030.00-0.01-0.03
0.99-0.00160.02320.00-0.01-0.05
0.98-0.0016.50.03730.00-0.01-0.06
0.97-0.00170.06210.00-0.01-0.08
0.95-0.0117.50.11100.00-0.01-0.12
0.91-0.01180.21630.01-0.01-0.19
0.80-0.0118.50.44040.01-0.01-0.31
0.54-0.01190.63780.01-0.01-0.54
0.28-0.0119.50.42340.01-0.01-0.74
0.17-0.01200.24640.01-0.01-0.85
0.11-0.0120.50.15800.01-0.01-0.90
0.08-0.01210.10930.01-0.01-0.93
0.05-0.01220.05980.00-0.00-0.96
0.03-0.00230.03690.00-0.00-0.97
0.03-0.0023.50.03000.00-0.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 25 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