Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 8:11 PM ET

RMD max pain

Spot (delayed)$224.48
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$210-6.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.08±3.2% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.684K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$220largest call OI
Put wall$195largest put OI
IV3027.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$6.1Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $220

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$210-6.5%5d
Fri, Sep 18$210-6.5%33d
Fri, Oct 16$220-2.0%61d
Fri, Jan 15$230+2.5%152d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot210125158191224257290$37M$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 — 210 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot2101251501701902202602K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RMD 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

spot210125150170190220260223223
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot18520221923625327085%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 220190200220240260+$3.1M$3.1M
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
1.00175
1.00180
1.001850.000.00
1.000.001900.00010.000.000.00
1.000.001950.00010.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.002000.00060.00-0.01-0.00
0.96-0.052100.00960.03-0.06-0.05
0.72-0.232200.04140.10-0.23-0.31
0.27-0.212300.03870.10-0.20-0.75
0.05-0.062400.01120.03-0.06-0.95
0.01-0.012500.00180.01-0.01-0.99
0.00-0.002600.00020.00-0.00-1.00
0.000.002700.000.00-1.00
280-1.00
290-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 24 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1251651902302803702K0
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

spot1051451852503304103K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 11K call contracts, 13K 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: RMD workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk