Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 3:00 PM ET

SLDP max pain

Spot (delayed)$2.39
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$2.5+4.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.35±14.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.362K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$2.5largest call OI
Put wall$2largest put OI
IV3090.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $2

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$2.5+4.8%8d
Fri, Sep 18$1.5-37.1%36d
Fri, Nov 20$3+25.8%99d
Fri, Jan 15$3+25.8%155d
Fri, Feb 19$0.5-79.0%190d
Fri, Jan 21$2-16.1%526d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot2.51246810$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 — 2.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot2.50.523.55101K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SLDP 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

spot2.50.523.551077
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot124568397%85%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 115.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 2123457.5+$5K$5K
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
1.000.50.00040.00
1.0010.00730.00-0.00
0.990.001.50.05300.00-0.00-0.01
0.90-0.0020.50510.00-0.00-0.10
0.40-0.012.51.13080.00-0.01-0.60
0.11-0.0030.44870.00-0.00-0.89
0.03-0.003.50.15840.00-0.00-0.97
0.01-0.0040.06230.000.00-0.99
0.010.004.50.02720.00-1.00
0.000.0050.01290.00-1.00
0.000.005.50.00650.00-1.00
0.007.50.00070.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot0.523.55102K0
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

spot0.523.55105K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 32K call contracts, 8K 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: SLDP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk