Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 20, 3:02 AM ET

PPIH max pain

Spot (delayed)$26.5
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$25-5.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.68±6.3% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.23181 puts / 147 calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV3073.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$5Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$25-5.7%1d
Fri, Sep 18$22.5-15.1%29d
Fri, Dec 18$25-5.7%120d
Fri, Mar 19$22.5-15.1%211d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot25152025303540$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 — 25 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot251522.525303540172172
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PPIH 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

spot251522.52530354022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot232630333740427%137%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 137.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot1522.525303540+$7K$7K
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
0.99-0.02150.00350.00-0.02-0.01
0.93-0.0822.50.04360.00-0.08-0.07
0.79-0.15250.13810.01-0.15-0.21
0.10-0.09300.07180.00-0.09-0.90
0.03-0.03350.01730.00-0.03-0.97
0.01-0.02400.00700.00-0.02-0.99

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

spot17.522.53040504170
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

spot12.517.522.5304050417417
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 319 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: PPIH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk