Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 1, 2:21 PM ET

MH max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.96
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$10-8.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.43±31.2% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.0410 puts / 230 calls
Call wall$12.5largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3079.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3Kper 1% move

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 21$10-8.8%19d
Fri, Sep 18$12.5+14.1%47d
Fri, Oct 16$10-8.8%75d
Fri, Jan 15$10-8.8%166d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot10101112131415$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot101012.515160160
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MH 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

spot101012.51511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot1012.515+$3K$3K
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
0.72-0.02100.14300.01-0.02-0.29
0.35-0.0212.50.14260.01-0.02-0.67
0.21-0.02150.08340.01-0.02-0.80

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

spot1012.5151990
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

spot2.57.512.517.5243243
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 359 call contracts, 41 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: MH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk