Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 11:31 PM ET

MPWR max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,399
Max pain · Fri, May 21$1,400+0.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$599.1±42.8% by Fri, May 21
Put/Call OI1.31728 puts / 557 calls
Call wall$2,260largest call OI
Put wall$1,300largest put OI
IV3055.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$63Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$1,380-1.3%5d
Fri, Sep 18$1,420+1.5%33d
Fri, Nov 20$1,360-2.8%96d
Fri, Dec 18$1,290-7.8%124d
Fri, Jan 15$1,080-22.8%152d
Fri, Feb 19$1,500+7.2%187d
Fri, Mar 19$1,410+0.8%215d
Fri, May 21$1,400+0.1%278d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot14004808801280168020802480$51M$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 — 1400 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21

spot14004808401080123014201800120120
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MPWR open contracts per strike for Fri, May 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, May 21

spot140048084010801230142018002020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21

spot480880128016802080248075%62%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 62.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, May 21

spot5008601120125014601880+$80K$80K
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, May 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.71-0.4412500.00044.22-0.47-0.30
0.70-0.4512600.00044.25-0.48-0.30
0.69-0.4612800.00054.31-0.48-0.32
0.68-0.4613000.00054.37-0.49-0.33
0.67-0.4713200.00054.43-0.49-0.34
0.66-0.4713400.00054.48-0.50-0.35
0.64-0.4913800.00054.57-0.51-0.37
0.63-0.4914000.00054.62-0.51-0.38
0.62-0.4914200.00054.65-0.52-0.39
0.61-0.5014400.00054.69-0.52-0.40
0.60-0.5014600.00054.72-0.53-0.41
0.59-0.5114800.00054.75-0.53-0.42
0.58-0.5115000.00054.78-0.53-0.43
0.57-0.5115200.00054.80-0.53-0.44
0.54-0.5216000.00054.86-0.54-0.48

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot48090010901380156018204630
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

spot3609401200145016802020522522
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 9K call contracts, 10K 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: MPWR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk