Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 6:20 AM ET

MESO max pain

Spot (delayed)$16.49
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$16-3.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.18±31.4% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.763K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$18largest call OI
Put wall$14largest put OI
IV3090.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$54Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $13

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$16-3.0%7d
Fri, Sep 18$14-15.1%35d
Fri, Oct 16$15-9.0%63d
Fri, Jan 15$10-39.4%154d
Fri, Jan 21$5-69.7%525d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot16121416171921$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 — 16 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot1612141618202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MESO 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

spot1612141618202020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot121416171921296%98%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 270.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 131214161820+$58K$58K
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
0.94-0.02120.03230.00-0.03-0.06
0.90-0.03130.05200.00-0.03-0.10
0.84-0.04140.08080.01-0.04-0.16
0.75-0.06150.11680.01-0.06-0.25
0.61-0.06160.14890.01-0.06-0.39
0.46-0.06170.15820.01-0.06-0.55
0.32-0.06180.14010.01-0.06-0.69
0.21-0.05190.11030.01-0.05-0.79
0.14-0.04200.08240.01-0.04-0.86
0.10-0.03210.06090.00-0.03-0.90

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

spot1013151719212K0
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

spot311162126315K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 33K call contracts, 5K 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: MESO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk