Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 11:10 PM ET

PPC max pain

Spot (delayed)$27.6
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$28+1.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.51±5.5% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.44781 puts / 544 calls
Call wall$30largest call OI
Put wall$27largest put OI
IV3039.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$43Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$28+1.4%7d
Fri, Sep 18$29+5.1%35d
Fri, Dec 18$30+8.7%126d
Fri, Mar 19$30+8.7%217d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot28212427313437$1M$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 — 28 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot28212427303337397397
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PPC 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

spot2821242730333733
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot222527303235143%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 42.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot212427303337+$46K$46K
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
0.990.00210.00640.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.00220.01090.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.01230.02010.00-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.01240.04000.00-0.01-0.04
0.91-0.02250.07810.01-0.02-0.09
0.81-0.03260.13840.01-0.03-0.19
0.64-0.04270.19630.01-0.04-0.36
0.43-0.05280.20210.02-0.05-0.56
0.27-0.04290.15950.01-0.04-0.73
0.16-0.03300.10960.01-0.03-0.84
0.10-0.02310.07170.01-0.02-0.90
0.06-0.02320.04670.01-0.02-0.94
0.04-0.01330.03080.00-0.01-0.96
0.03-0.01340.02070.00-0.01-0.97
0.02-0.01350.01420.00-0.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2026323844601K0
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

spot1524303642481K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 6K call contracts, 5K 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: PPC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk