Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 5, 10:11 PM ET

MCD max pain

Spot (delayed)$273.89
Max pain · Fri, Aug 7$270-1.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.95±1.8% by Fri, Aug 7
Put/Call OI0.6712K puts / 17K calls
Call wall$300largest call OI
Put wall$250largest put OI
IV3022.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$21.0Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $210

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 7$270-1.4%2d
Fri, Aug 14$270-1.4%9d
Fri, Aug 21$270-1.4%16d
Fri, Aug 28$270-1.4%23d
Fri, Sep 4$270-1.4%30d
Fri, Sep 11$265-3.2%37d
Fri, Sep 18$285+4.1%44d
Fri, Oct 16$270-1.4%72d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot270170215260305350395$186M$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 — 270 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 7

spot2701702302602853153653K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MCD open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 7.

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 7

spot27017023026028531536511K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 7

spot210238266294322350115%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 30.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 7

spotflip 210200242.5265287.5315360+$8.1M$8.1M
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 7

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.03257.50.00410.01-0.03-0.01
0.98-0.052600.00680.01-0.05-0.02
0.96-0.08262.50.01200.02-0.09-0.04
0.93-0.162650.02120.03-0.16-0.07
0.87-0.29267.50.03540.04-0.29-0.13
0.76-0.482700.05230.06-0.48-0.24
0.61-0.64272.50.06530.08-0.64-0.39
0.45-0.672750.06720.08-0.68-0.56
0.29-0.56277.50.05730.07-0.57-0.72
0.18-0.392800.04200.05-0.40-0.83
0.11-0.26282.50.02810.04-0.25-0.90
0.07-0.172850.01820.03-0.15-0.94
0.04-0.11287.50.01200.02-0.10-0.97
0.03-0.082900.00810.01-0.08-0.98
0.02-0.06292.50.00580.01-0.06-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 57 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot155210252.5280307.53608K0
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

spot135205257.5292.534541528K28K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 173K call contracts, 120K 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: MCD workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk