Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 5:02 PM ET

MAN max pain

Spot (delayed)$57.06
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$55-3.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.25±5.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.93712 puts / 368 calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$55largest put OI
IV3048.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$26Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$55-3.6%3d
Fri, Sep 18$40-29.9%31d
Fri, Oct 16$30-47.4%59d
Fri, Dec 18$50-12.4%122d
Fri, Mar 19$50-12.4%213d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot55203142536475$2M$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 — 55 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot552030456075250250
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MAN 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

spot55203045607533
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot404754616875222%54%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 57.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot40506070+$24K$24K
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
1.0022.5
1.0025
1.0030
1.00350.000.00
1.00400.00020.000.000.00
1.00-0.00450.00160.00-0.00-0.00
0.97-0.02500.01480.00-0.02-0.03
0.76-0.12550.09770.02-0.13-0.24
0.19-0.10600.08700.02-0.10-0.81
0.02-0.02650.01450.00-0.02-0.98
0.00-0.00700.00200.00-0.01-1.00
0.000.00750.00030.00-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1522.53550654860
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

spot1522.535506580600600
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 3K 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: MAN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk