Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 1:28 AM ET

MLSS max pain

Spot (delayed)$0.53
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$0.5-5.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.35±66.1% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.0223 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$0.5largest call OI
Put wall$1largest put OI
IV3035.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$0.5-5.5%8d
Fri, Sep 18$5+844.8%36d
Fri, Oct 16$0.5-5.5%64d
Fri, Jan 15$0.5-5.5%155d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot0.5111223$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 — 0.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot0.50.511.522.51K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MLSS 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

spot0.50.511.522.511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Greeks by strike · Fri, Aug 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.75-0.000.56.73980.00-0.00-0.25
0.020.0010.32600.00-0.99
0.010.001.50.09750.00-1.00
0.000.0020.04840.00-1.00
0.000.002.50.02960.00-1.00

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

spot0.511.522.51K0
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

spot0.51.52.57.51K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 36 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: MLSS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk