Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 18, 2:30 PM ET

NXE max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.23
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$10-2.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.55±5.4% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.6817K puts / 25K calls
Call wall$11largest call OI
Put wall$9largest put OI
IV3059.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$129Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$10-2.2%3d
Fri, Sep 18$11+7.5%31d
Fri, Oct 16$10-2.2%59d
Fri, Nov 20$11+7.5%94d
Fri, Dec 18$11+7.5%122d
Fri, Jan 15$10-2.2%150d
Fri, Feb 19$11+7.5%185d
Fri, Jan 21$10-2.2%521d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot101611152025$31M$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot10159131710K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NXE 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

spot101591317151151
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot7911131517264%66%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 67.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 569121518+$184K$184K
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
1.0030.00020.000.00
1.0040.00050.000.00
1.0050.00100.00-0.00
1.000.0060.0025-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.0070.00710.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.0080.02430.00-0.00-0.01
0.96-0.0190.11630.00-0.01-0.04
0.68-0.03100.65250.00-0.03-0.33
0.15-0.02110.34040.00-0.03-0.85
0.04-0.01120.09830.00-0.01-0.96
0.02-0.01130.03570.00-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.00140.01540.00-0.00-1.00
0.00-0.00150.00750.00-0.00-1.00
0.00-0.00160.00400.00-0.00-1.00
0.000.00170.0022-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 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

spot1610141819K0
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

spot15913172543K43K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 147K call contracts, 112K 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: NXE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk