Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 9:06 AM ET

RVI max pain

Spot (delayed)$28.56
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$30+5.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.18±11.1% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.952K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$30largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV3076.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$3Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$30+5.0%4d
Fri, Sep 18$30+5.0%32d
Fri, Dec 18$30+5.0%123d
Fri, Mar 19$25-12.5%214d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot30233242516170$5M$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 — 30 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot3022.530405060701K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)RVI 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

spot3022.530405060706060
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot233242516170346%60%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 91.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot22.53040506070+$43K$43K
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
0.97-0.0122.50.01660.00-0.01-0.03
0.90-0.04250.05620.01-0.04-0.10
0.36-0.09300.11340.01-0.09-0.64
0.10-0.05350.04170.01-0.05-0.90
0.04-0.03400.01630.00-0.03-0.97
0.02-0.02450.00760.00-0.01-0.98
0.01-0.01500.00410.00-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.01550.00240.00-0.01-1.00
0.00-0.01600.00160.00-0.00-1.00
0.00-0.00650.00110.00-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 11 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot22.530405060701K0
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

spot1522.53550654K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5K call contracts, 7K 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: RVI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk