Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 1, 11:41 PM ET

QMCO max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.93
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$10-8.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.38±30.9% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.76765 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$12.5largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV30141.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $12.5

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$10-8.5%19d
Fri, Sep 18$10-8.5%47d
Fri, Dec 18$7.5-31.4%138d
Fri, Mar 19$7.5-31.4%229d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1051015202530$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot10510152030430430
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)QMCO 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

spot10510152030155155
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot51015202530460%144%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 169.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 12.5510152030+$5K$5K
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
0.97-0.0150.01500.00-0.01-0.04
0.87-0.027.50.05240.01-0.02-0.13
0.65-0.03100.10380.01-0.03-0.36
0.40-0.0412.50.10310.01-0.04-0.61
0.25-0.03150.07740.01-0.03-0.76
0.17-0.0317.50.05620.01-0.03-0.84
0.12-0.02200.04170.01-0.02-0.89
0.09-0.0222.50.03190.00-0.02-0.92
0.04-0.01300.01670.00-0.01-0.96

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

spot5101520252K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.5302K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5K call contracts, 1K 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: QMCO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk