Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 19, 2:41 AM ET

LCTX max pain

Spot (delayed)$1.06
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$1.5+41.5% vs spot
Put/Call OI0.023 puts / 141 calls
Call wall$1.5largest call OI
Put wall$1.5largest put OI
IV30128.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$20per 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$1.5+41.5%2d
Fri, Sep 18$1.5+41.5%30d
Fri, Dec 18$1-5.7%121d
Fri, Mar 19$0.5-52.8%212d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1.5111223$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 — 1.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot1.50.51.522.57979
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LCTX 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

spot1.50.51.522.511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Greeks by strike · Fri, Aug 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.000.50.01160.00-0.00
0.010.001.50.2102-0.00-0.99
0.000.0020.03220.00-1.00
0.002.50.01040.00-1.00

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

spot0.51.52.57.53K0
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

spot0.51.52.57.54K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7K call contracts, 307 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: LCTX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk