Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 6, 11:48 PM ET

SFL max pain

Spot (delayed)$12.07
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$10-17.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.68±5.6% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.22889 puts / 4K calls
Call wall$12.5largest call OI
Put wall$10largest put OI
IV3032.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$202Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $7.5

Event risk before this expiration: 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$10-17.1%14d
Fri, Sep 18$12.5+3.6%42d
Fri, Nov 20$10-17.1%105d
Fri, Feb 19$12.5+3.6%196d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot103711151923$4M$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot102.51015203K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SFL 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

spot102.5101520192192
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 7.57.512.517.522.5+$200K$200K
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
1.00-0.002.50.00220.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.007.50.01860.00-0.01-0.02
0.93-0.01100.08580.00-0.01-0.07
0.30-0.0112.50.43230.01-0.01-0.69
0.05-0.01150.06360.00-0.00-0.95
0.02-0.0017.50.01980.000.00-0.98
0.01-0.00200.00840.00-0.99
0.00-0.0022.50.00420.00-0.99

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

spot2.51015205K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.55K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 6K call contracts, 1K 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: SFL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk