Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 2:00 AM ET

NLY max pain

Spot (delayed)$23.33
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$23-1.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.29±1.2% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI2.2631K puts / 14K calls
Call wall$23largest call OI
Put wall$22largest put OI
IV3014.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$148Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$23-1.4%4d
Fri, Aug 28$22.5-3.6%11d
Fri, Sep 4$23-1.4%18d
Fri, Sep 11$23-1.4%25d
Fri, Sep 18$23-1.4%32d
Fri, Sep 25$23-1.4%39d
Fri, Oct 2$22-5.7%46d
Fri, Oct 16$23-1.4%60d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot23141719222427$26M$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 — 23 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot231418.521232514K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NLY 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

spot231418.5212325463463
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot22232424252635%6%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 9.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot1418.5212325+$1.9M$1.9M
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
0.99-0.00200.01460.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0020.50.02240.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.00210.03590.00-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.0021.50.06160.00-0.00-0.03
0.95-0.01220.11580.00-0.01-0.05
0.91-0.0122.50.24850.01-0.01-0.09
0.78-0.01230.62580.01-0.01-0.23
0.36-0.0123.50.94180.01-0.01-0.67
0.12-0.01240.37080.01-0.01-0.91
0.05-0.0124.50.15390.00-0.00-0.97
0.03-0.00250.07620.00-0.00-0.98
0.02-0.0025.50.04260.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.00260.02600.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.0026.50.01680.00-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1418.521.523.525.59K0
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

spot31619.522.525.528.522K22K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 62K call contracts, 73K 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: NLY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk