Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 4:20 AM ET

MBX max pain

Spot (delayed)$68.57
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$60-12.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.1±11.8% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI2.25427 puts / 190 calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3077.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$17Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $50

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$60-12.5%5d
Fri, Sep 18$60-12.5%33d
Fri, Oct 16$50-27.1%61d
Fri, Dec 18$20-70.8%124d
Fri, Jan 15$20-70.8%152d
Fri, Jan 21$15-78.1%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot60304356698295$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 — 60 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot603045607590122122
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MBX 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

spot60304560759022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot304356698295281%66%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 77.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 503045607590+$13K$13K
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
1.00-0.00350.00030.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.01400.00050.00-0.01-0.00
0.99-0.01450.00120.00-0.01-0.00
0.99-0.02500.00280.00-0.02-0.01
0.97-0.03550.00780.01-0.03-0.03
0.91-0.08600.02280.02-0.08-0.09
0.72-0.18650.04690.03-0.18-0.28
0.46-0.23700.05080.04-0.23-0.54
0.26-0.20750.03780.03-0.20-0.74
0.15-0.15800.02460.02-0.15-0.85
0.08-0.10850.01530.01-0.10-0.92
0.05-0.07900.00940.01-0.07-0.95
0.03-0.05950.00580.01-0.05-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 14 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot25456075901054330
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

spot2.515305580105495495
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 716 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: MBX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk