Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 10:08 PM ET

NUAI max pain

Spot (delayed)$5.17
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$5-3.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1±19.3% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI0.111K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$5.5largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV30152.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$61Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $1

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$2.5-51.6%3d
Fri, Aug 28$5-3.3%10d
Fri, Sep 4$4.5-13.0%17d
Fri, Sep 11$4.5-13.0%24d
Fri, Sep 18$5-3.3%31d
Fri, Sep 25$4.5-13.0%38d
Fri, Oct 2$5-3.3%45d
Fri, Nov 20$4-22.6%94d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot51357911$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 — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot50.52.54.56.58.5113K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NUAI 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

spot50.52.54.56.58.511102102
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot1357911542%134%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 148.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spotflip 11.53.55.57.59.5+$26K$26K
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 ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.001.50.00640.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0020.01230.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.002.50.02350.00-0.00-0.02
0.97-0.0130.04550.00-0.01-0.03
0.94-0.013.50.08880.00-0.01-0.07
0.87-0.0140.16540.00-0.01-0.13
0.75-0.024.50.26010.00-0.02-0.25
0.59-0.0350.31220.00-0.03-0.41
0.45-0.035.50.30180.00-0.03-0.56
0.33-0.0360.26150.00-0.03-0.67
0.25-0.026.50.21660.00-0.02-0.75
0.19-0.0270.17650.00-0.02-0.81
0.15-0.027.50.14330.00-0.02-0.86
0.12-0.0180.11660.00-0.01-0.89
0.09-0.018.50.09540.00-0.01-0.91

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 21 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot0.52.54.56.58.51130K0
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

spot0.52.54.56.58.51139K39K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 227K call contracts, 65K 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: NUAI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk