Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 1:53 AM ET

MHO max pain

Spot (delayed)$152.11
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$150-1.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.77±4.5% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.2360 puts / 266 calls
Call wall$155largest call OI
Put wall$155largest put OI
IV3032.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$168Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $150

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$150-1.4%5d
Fri, Sep 18$125-17.8%33d
Fri, Oct 16$130-14.5%61d
Fri, Jan 15$135-11.2%152d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot150115132149166183200$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 — 150 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot150115140155170190115115
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MHO 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

spot15011514015517019011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot115132149166183200148%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 39.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 150115150160170180200+$98K$98K
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
0.97-0.111150.00300.01-0.11-0.03
0.96-0.121200.00390.02-0.12-0.04
0.91-0.151350.01150.03-0.15-0.09
0.87-0.171400.01820.04-0.17-0.13
0.79-0.191450.03060.06-0.19-0.21
0.62-0.211500.04980.08-0.21-0.38
0.36-0.211550.04990.08-0.21-0.64
0.20-0.181600.03190.06-0.18-0.80
0.13-0.151650.01980.04-0.15-0.88
0.08-0.121700.01300.03-0.12-0.92
0.06-0.101750.00890.03-0.10-0.94
0.04-0.091800.00640.02-0.09-0.96
0.03-0.071900.00360.01-0.07-0.97

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

spot901301451601751904520
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

spot7095120145170195912912
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 146 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: MHO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk