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.
■ 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 — 125 — is the max pain price.
Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MRK open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 28.
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 28
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).
Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 29.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.
Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28
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 28
Call Δ
Call Θ
Strike
Γ
Vega
Put Θ
Put Δ
0.80
-0.06
121
0.0286
0.09
-0.06
-0.20
0.77
-0.06
122
0.0314
0.10
-0.06
-0.23
0.74
-0.07
123
0.0339
0.10
-0.07
-0.26
0.70
-0.07
124
0.0363
0.11
-0.07
-0.30
0.67
-0.07
125
0.0383
0.12
-0.08
-0.34
0.63
-0.08
126
0.0400
0.12
-0.08
-0.38
0.59
-0.08
127
0.0412
0.13
-0.08
-0.42
0.54
-0.08
128
0.0420
0.13
-0.08
-0.46
0.50
-0.08
129
0.0423
0.13
-0.08
-0.50
0.46
-0.08
130
0.0421
0.13
-0.08
-0.55
0.42
-0.08
131
0.0415
0.13
-0.08
-0.59
0.38
-0.08
132
0.0404
0.12
-0.08
-0.63
0.34
-0.07
133
0.0390
0.12
-0.08
-0.67
0.30
-0.07
134
0.0372
0.11
-0.07
-0.71
0.27
-0.07
135
0.0352
0.11
-0.07
-0.74
Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 39 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.
Stacked — layer the expirations
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.
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.