Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 9:15 PM ET

PAGP max pain

Spot (delayed)$25.84
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$25-3.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.5±1.9% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.607K puts / 12K calls
Call wall$26largest call OI
Put wall$22largest put OI
IV3016.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $25

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$25-3.3%6d
Fri, Sep 18$25-3.3%34d
Fri, Nov 20$24-7.1%97d
Fri, Jan 15$24-7.1%153d
Fri, Feb 19$23-11.0%188d
Fri, Jan 21$22-14.9%524d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot25151821242730$6M$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 — 25 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot2515182124276K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PAGP 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

spot2515182124276969
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot23242627293057%15%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 15.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 251519222528+$2.7M$2.7M
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
1.000.00190.00100.000.00-0.00
1.000.00200.00170.000.00-0.00
1.00-0.00210.00330.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.00220.00720.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00230.01820.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.00240.05780.00-0.00-0.02
0.90-0.01250.25620.01-0.01-0.10
0.41-0.02260.68930.01-0.02-0.59
0.08-0.01270.18590.01-0.01-0.93
0.02-0.00280.05000.00-0.00-0.98
0.00-0.00300.00680.000.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot18212427303322K0
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

spot3121722273245K45K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 118K call contracts, 21K 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: PAGP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk