Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 11:33 PM ET

PESI max pain

Spot (delayed)$17.37
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$15-13.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.85±10.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.311K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$15largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3086.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $15

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$15-13.6%3d
Fri, Sep 18$7.5-56.8%31d
Fri, Dec 18$10-42.4%122d
Fri, Mar 19$12.5-28.0%213d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot153814192530$2M$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 — 15 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot152.57.512.517.522.530423423
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PESI 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

spot152.57.512.517.522.53011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot81217212630288%78%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 95.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 15510152025+$3K$3K
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
1.00-0.002.50.00020.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.0050.00090.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.017.50.00300.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.01100.00900.00-0.01-0.02
0.95-0.0312.50.02780.00-0.03-0.05
0.84-0.05150.08810.01-0.05-0.16
0.51-0.0717.50.15660.01-0.07-0.49
0.24-0.07200.10100.01-0.07-0.76
0.13-0.0522.50.05810.01-0.05-0.87
0.08-0.04250.03640.00-0.04-0.92
0.04-0.03300.01780.00-0.03-0.96

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot510152025355K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.5305K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 15K call contracts, 2K 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: PESI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk