Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 5, 9:49 PM ET

ROAD max pain

Spot (delayed)$105.07
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$100-4.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.25±11.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI2.101K puts / 584 calls
Call wall$120largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3063.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$85Kper 1% move
Earnings · expectedThu, Aug 6usually after the close

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$100-4.8%16d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Aug 6)
Fri, Sep 18$90-14.3%44d
Fri, Oct 16$100-4.8%72d
Fri, Jan 15$105-0.1%163d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1007088106124142160$3M$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot1007085100115130150699699
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ROAD 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

spot100708510011513015066
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot708810612414216095%63%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 69.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot7085100115130150+$145K$145K
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
0.99-0.02700.00180.01-0.02-0.01
0.97-0.03750.00320.01-0.04-0.03
0.95-0.05800.00540.02-0.06-0.05
0.92-0.08850.00890.03-0.08-0.08
0.86-0.11900.01350.05-0.12-0.14
0.78-0.15950.01880.07-0.15-0.23
0.67-0.181000.02360.08-0.18-0.34
0.54-0.191050.02620.09-0.19-0.46
0.41-0.181100.02580.09-0.18-0.59
0.30-0.161150.02290.08-0.16-0.71
0.21-0.141200.01860.06-0.14-0.80
0.14-0.111250.01440.05-0.11-0.86
0.10-0.081300.01070.04-0.08-0.91
0.05-0.051400.00570.02-0.05-0.96
0.03-0.041450.00420.02-0.04-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot60951201451702002320
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

spot5080110140170200727727
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 2K 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: ROAD workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk