Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 5, 11:41 PM ET

MA max pain

Spot (delayed)$573
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$555-3.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$26.8±4.7% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI0.99968 puts / 982 calls
Call wall$600largest call OI
Put wall$515largest put OI
IV3023.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.1Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $580

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$565-1.4%2d
Fri, Aug 14$550-4.0%9d
Fri, Aug 21$530-7.5%16d
Fri, Aug 28$555-3.1%23d
Fri, Sep 4$555-3.1%30d
Fri, Sep 11$525-8.4%37d
Fri, Sep 18$525-8.4%44d
Fri, Oct 16$530-7.5%72d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot555320388456524592660$20M$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 — 555 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot555320460505550595640304304
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MA 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

spot5553204605055505956402222
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot37543248954660366070%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spotflip 580430470510550590630+$786K$786K
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
0.82-0.205400.00710.37-0.20-0.18
0.79-0.225450.00810.42-0.23-0.21
0.75-0.245500.00910.46-0.25-0.26
0.70-0.265550.01000.50-0.27-0.30
0.65-0.285600.01070.53-0.28-0.36
0.59-0.295650.01130.56-0.29-0.41
0.54-0.295700.01170.57-0.30-0.47
0.48-0.295750.01180.57-0.30-0.53
0.42-0.295800.01160.56-0.29-0.59
0.36-0.285850.01110.54-0.28-0.65
0.31-0.265900.01040.51-0.27-0.70
0.26-0.245950.00960.47-0.25-0.75
0.22-0.226000.00870.43-0.23-0.79
0.19-0.206050.00770.39-0.20-0.83
0.15-0.186100.00680.35-0.18-0.86

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 50 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot370465522.55555856202K0
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

spot2704004705355906806K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 75K call contracts, 70K 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: MA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk