Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 1:34 AM ET

NEU max pain

Spot (delayed)$961.92
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$815-15.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$19.35±2.0% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.0014 puts / 14 calls
Call wall$855largest call OI
Put wall$620largest put OI
IV3022.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$28Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $855

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$815-15.3%4d
Fri, Sep 18$750-22.0%32d
Fri, Dec 18$560-41.8%123d
Fri, Mar 19$860-10.6%214d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot815575656737818899980$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 — 815 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot81557574078581588091044
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NEU 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

spot81557574078581588091011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot81084487891294698056%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 18.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 855620750790855885980+$11K$11K
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
0.97-0.308150.00070.08-0.30-0.03
0.95-0.418550.00140.13-0.41-0.04
0.94-0.478700.00180.15-0.47-0.06
0.93-0.518800.00220.18-0.51-0.07
0.93-0.538850.00250.19-0.53-0.07
0.89-0.649050.00390.26-0.64-0.11
0.88-0.679100.00440.28-0.67-0.13
0.34-0.839750.01180.49-0.84-0.66
0.29-0.799800.01070.46-0.79-0.71

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 9 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot30056073081090010005350
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

spot500610750855940980586586
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 125 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: NEU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk