Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 11:46 PM ET

SA max pain

Spot (delayed)$32.51
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$27-16.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.73±8.4% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.173K puts / 17K calls
Call wall$30largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV3071.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$951Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $19

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$27-16.9%7d
Fri, Sep 18$27-16.9%35d
Fri, Nov 20$20-38.5%98d
Fri, Jan 15$21-35.4%154d
Fri, Feb 19$23-29.3%189d
Fri, Jan 21$15-53.9%525d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot27152229364350$28M$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 — 27 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot271521263136454K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SA 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

spot27152126313645552552
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot172430374350261%61%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 66.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 19172227323750+$359K$359K
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
0.97-0.01260.01670.00-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.02270.02710.01-0.02-0.05
0.91-0.03280.04190.01-0.03-0.09
0.86-0.04290.06080.01-0.04-0.14
0.79-0.06300.08140.01-0.06-0.21
0.69-0.07310.09920.02-0.07-0.31
0.58-0.08320.10960.02-0.08-0.42
0.47-0.08330.11030.02-0.08-0.53
0.37-0.08340.10280.02-0.08-0.63
0.28-0.07350.09010.02-0.07-0.72
0.21-0.06360.07560.01-0.06-0.79
0.16-0.05370.06160.01-0.05-0.84
0.12-0.04380.04920.01-0.04-0.88
0.09-0.04390.03890.01-0.04-0.91
0.07-0.03400.03060.01-0.03-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 27 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1521263136458K0
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

spot1521263136428K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 42K call contracts, 6K 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: SA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk