Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 11:31 PM ET

SLV max pain

Spot (delayed)$58.48
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$56-4.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.32±4.0% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.34197K puts / 574K calls
Call wall$60largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3039.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$44.7Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $29

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Mon, Aug 17$55-6.0%1d
Wed, Aug 19$57.5-1.7%3d
Fri, Aug 21$56-4.2%5d
Mon, Aug 24$58.5+0.0%8d
Wed, Aug 26$58-0.8%10d
Fri, Aug 28$55-6.0%12d
Fri, Sep 4$54-7.7%19d
Fri, Sep 11$55-6.0%26d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot563570105140175210$7.2B$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 — 56 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot56355464748612062K62K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SLV 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

spot56355464748612022K22K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot4053667992105140%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 293554647486120+$20.9M$20.9M
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
0.97-0.02520.01920.01-0.02-0.03
0.96-0.0252.50.02320.01-0.02-0.04
0.95-0.02530.02820.01-0.02-0.05
0.93-0.03540.04260.01-0.03-0.07
0.88-0.04550.06410.02-0.04-0.12
0.81-0.06560.09150.02-0.06-0.19
0.70-0.07570.11870.03-0.07-0.30
0.57-0.08580.13600.03-0.08-0.43
0.44-0.08590.13580.03-0.09-0.56
0.32-0.08600.11970.03-0.08-0.69
0.22-0.07610.09580.02-0.07-0.79
0.15-0.05620.07250.02-0.05-0.85
0.11-0.04630.05360.01-0.04-0.90
0.08-0.04640.03980.01-0.04-0.93
0.06-0.03650.03000.01-0.03-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3550.557.5657911065K0
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

spot1547587083130335K335K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 4.5M call contracts, 2.0M 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: SLV workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk