Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 12:38 AM ET

MU max pain

Spot (delayed)$876.2
Max pain · Wed, Aug 19$890+1.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$123.2±14.1% by Wed, Aug 19
Put/Call OI2.11544 puts / 258 calls
Call wall$900largest call OI
Put wall$800largest put OI
IV3086.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$455Kper 1% move
Earnings · expectedTue, Sep 22usually after the close

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 7$860-1.8%2d
Mon, Aug 10$850-3.0%5d
Wed, Aug 12$840-4.1%7d
Fri, Aug 14$895+2.1%9d
Mon, Aug 17$850-3.0%12d
Wed, Aug 19$890+1.6%14d
Fri, Aug 21$900+2.7%16d
Fri, Aug 28$895+2.1%23d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot890755784813842871900$5M$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 — 890 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Wed, Aug 19

spot890755780805845870895142142
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MU open contracts per strike for Wed, Aug 19.

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 · Wed, Aug 19

spot890755780805845870895164164
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Aug 19

spot75578481384287190094%87%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 88.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Aug 19

spot755780805850875900+$200K$200K
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 · Wed, Aug 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.67-2.008400.00230.63-2.02-0.33
0.66-2.038450.00240.64-2.04-0.34
0.65-2.068500.00240.65-2.07-0.35
0.64-2.088550.00240.66-2.09-0.36
0.62-2.108600.00250.67-2.11-0.38
0.61-2.128650.00250.67-2.13-0.39
0.60-2.148700.00250.68-2.15-0.40
0.58-2.168750.00250.68-2.17-0.42
0.57-2.178800.00260.69-2.18-0.43
0.56-2.188850.00260.69-2.19-0.44
0.55-2.198900.00260.69-2.20-0.46
0.53-2.198950.00260.70-2.20-0.47
0.52-2.209000.00260.70-2.21-0.48

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 27 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot55710800880960110010K0
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

spot5150340540800105063K63K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1.5M call contracts, 1.8M 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: MU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk