Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 11:13 PM ET

SBS max pain

Spot (delayed)$4.6
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$5+8.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.63±13.6% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.013 puts / 208 calls
Call wall$5largest call OI
Put wall$2.5largest put OI
IV3064.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$5+8.7%4d
Fri, Sep 18$7.5+63.0%32d
Fri, Oct 16$5+8.7%60d
Fri, Jan 15$2.5-45.7%151d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot53467910$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 — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot52.557.510134134
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SBS 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

spot52.557.51022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Greeks by strike · Fri, Aug 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.98-0.012.50.03860.00-0.01-0.03
0.26-0.0150.57060.00-0.01-0.73
0.05-0.017.50.08410.00-0.01-0.94
0.03-0.01100.03840.00-0.01-0.97

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

spot2.55782050
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

spot2.5457810226226
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 411 call contracts, 36 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: SBS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk