Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 12:55 AM ET

NVGS max pain

Spot (delayed)$21
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$20-4.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.5±21.4% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI1.0426 puts / 25 calls
Call wall$21largest call OI
Put wall$19largest put OI
IV3031.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$300per 1% move · flip ≈ $21

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$19-9.5%6d
Fri, Sep 18$19-9.5%34d
Fri, Dec 18$15-28.6%125d
Fri, Mar 19$20-4.8%216d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot20131516181921$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot2013151719212525
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NVGS open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 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 · Fri, Mar 19

spot20131517192111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot13151618192161%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spotflip 211315171921+$854$854
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.87-0.00140.02160.03-0.01-0.13
0.85-0.00150.02630.04-0.01-0.15
0.82-0.00160.03210.04-0.01-0.17
0.79-0.00170.03940.04-0.01-0.20
0.75-0.00180.04820.05-0.01-0.24
0.70-0.00190.05860.06-0.01-0.30
0.64-0.00200.06940.06-0.01-0.36
0.57-0.00210.07750.06-0.01-0.44

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 8 strikes around the money — all 9 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot15192225282K0
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

spot1014182226302K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 6K call contracts, 608 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: NVGS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk