Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 7:11 AM ET

RNAC max pain

Spot (delayed)$8.84
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$2.5-71.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.34±26.5% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.0117 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$12.5largest call OI
Put wall$2.5largest put OI
IV30106.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$11Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$2.5-71.7%5d
Fri, Sep 18$7.5-15.2%33d
Fri, Nov 20$7.5-15.2%96d
Fri, Feb 19$5-43.4%187d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot2.5369121518$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 — 2.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot2.52.57.512.517.5357357
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RNAC 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

spot2.52.57.512.517.511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot369121518746%143%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 264.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot2.57.512.517.5+$4K$4K
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
1.00-0.002.50.00310.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0150.02110.00-0.01-0.03
0.84-0.037.50.14520.00-0.03-0.16
0.34-0.05100.18720.01-0.05-0.67
0.17-0.0512.50.09290.00-0.05-0.84
0.11-0.04150.05690.00-0.04-0.90
0.08-0.0417.50.03970.00-0.04-0.93

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

spot2.57.512.517.55850
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

spot2.57.512.517.5849849
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 167 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: RNAC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk