Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 12:16 AM ET

ORCL max pain

Spot (delayed)$142.16
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$130-8.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$17.83±12.5% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI0.8021K puts / 27K calls
Call wall$170largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3062.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4.0Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $140
Earnings · expectedTue, Sep 8usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · CPI release Wed, Aug 12 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 7$132-7.1%2d
Fri, Aug 14$128-10.0%9d
Fri, Aug 21$140-1.5%16d
Fri, Aug 28$130-8.6%23d
Fri, Sep 4$137-3.6%30d
Fri, Sep 11$140-1.5%37d← 1st expiry after earnings (Tue, Sep 8)
Fri, Sep 18$155+9.0%44d
Fri, Oct 16$155+9.0%72d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot13080108136164192220$173M$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 — 130 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot130801181291401501806K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ORCL 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

spot13080118129140150180302302
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot80108136164192220130%58%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 61.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spotflip 14080118129140150180+$928K$928K
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
0.72-0.171340.01500.12-0.17-0.28
0.70-0.171350.01540.13-0.17-0.30
0.68-0.171360.01570.13-0.18-0.32
0.67-0.181370.01610.13-0.18-0.34
0.65-0.181380.01640.13-0.18-0.35
0.61-0.191400.01690.14-0.19-0.39
0.60-0.191410.01710.14-0.19-0.40
0.58-0.191420.01720.14-0.19-0.42
0.56-0.191430.01740.14-0.20-0.44
0.55-0.201440.01750.14-0.20-0.46
0.53-0.201450.01750.14-0.20-0.47
0.51-0.201460.01750.14-0.20-0.49
0.49-0.201470.01750.14-0.20-0.51
0.48-0.201480.01750.14-0.20-0.53
0.46-0.201490.01740.14-0.20-0.54

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 59 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot7011813314819034048K0
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

spot60110150200300430124K124K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1.8M call contracts, 1.4M 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: ORCL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk