Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 5, 11:33 PM ET

PAGS max pain

Spot (delayed)$9.4
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$10+6.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.1±11.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.505K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$11largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3049.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$12Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $7

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 21$10+6.4%16d
Fri, Sep 18$9-4.3%44d
Fri, Nov 20$9-4.3%107d
Fri, Jan 15$13+38.3%163d
Fri, Feb 19$5-46.8%198d
Fri, Jan 21$5-46.8%534d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot10269131620$8M$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

spot102581114174K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PAGS 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

spot10258111417100100
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot5811141720284%49%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 74.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 758111417+$48K$48K
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
1.00-0.0020.00040.000.00
1.00-0.0030.00080.000.00-0.00
1.00-0.0040.00170.000.00-0.00
1.00-0.0050.00390.000.00-0.00
1.00-0.0060.01080.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0070.03380.00-0.00-0.02
0.93-0.0180.14890.00-0.01-0.08
0.67-0.0190.37590.01-0.01-0.33
0.29-0.01100.33660.01-0.01-0.70
0.10-0.01110.15480.00-0.01-0.90
0.03-0.00120.05980.00-0.00-0.96
0.01-0.00130.02260.00-0.00-0.98
0.000.00140.00870.00-0.99
0.000.00150.00340.00-0.99
0.000.00160.0014-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2591215185K0
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

spot159131715K15K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 44K call contracts, 17K 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: PAGS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk