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Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Jul 31, 3:30 PM ET

PEP max pain

Spot (delayed)$139.15
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$140+0.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.7±4.8% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.6519K puts / 29K calls
Call wall$140largest call OI
Put wall$130largest put OI
IV3024.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$7.7Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $100

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$140+0.6%6d
Fri, Aug 14$139-0.1%13d
Fri, Aug 21$140+0.6%20d
Fri, Aug 28$139-0.1%27d
Fri, Sep 4$140+0.6%34d
Fri, Sep 11$139-0.1%41d
Fri, Sep 18$140+0.6%48d
Fri, Oct 16$140+0.6%76d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot14075100125150175200$155M$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 — 140 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot14075115129137145157.56K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PEP 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

spot14075115129137145157.5322322
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot9011213415617820098%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 10090124132140148170+$4.3M$4.3M
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
0.82-0.051320.03040.09-0.05-0.18
0.79-0.061330.03400.10-0.06-0.21
0.76-0.061340.03740.11-0.06-0.25
0.72-0.071350.04040.11-0.07-0.29
0.67-0.071360.04300.12-0.07-0.33
0.63-0.071370.04510.13-0.08-0.38
0.58-0.081380.04650.13-0.08-0.42
0.54-0.081390.04730.13-0.08-0.47
0.49-0.081400.04740.13-0.08-0.52
0.44-0.081410.04680.13-0.08-0.57
0.40-0.081420.04560.13-0.08-0.61
0.35-0.071430.04380.13-0.08-0.66
0.31-0.071440.04150.12-0.07-0.70
0.28-0.071450.03890.11-0.07-0.74
0.24-0.061460.03610.10-0.07-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 48 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot751251341421501757K0
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

spot6512013214316020566K66K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 261K call contracts, 117K 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: PEP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk