Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 1:05 PM ET

SQM max pain

Spot (delayed)$72.16
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$70-3.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.6±7.8% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.59718 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$70largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3050.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$114Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $72.5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$70-3.0%6d
Fri, Sep 18$65-9.9%34d
Fri, Oct 16$65-9.9%62d
Fri, Jan 15$70-3.0%153d
Fri, Jan 21$40-44.6%524d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot7045597387101115$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 — 70 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot704562.572.582.592.5325325
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SQM 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

spot704562.572.582.592.51010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot45597387101115207%49%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 65.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 72.54565758595+$58K$58K
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
0.99-0.00500.00160.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.01550.00420.00-0.02-0.02
0.96-0.04600.01130.01-0.04-0.04
0.93-0.0662.50.01860.01-0.06-0.07
0.88-0.08650.02990.02-0.08-0.12
0.79-0.1167.50.04570.03-0.11-0.21
0.66-0.14700.06230.04-0.14-0.34
0.49-0.1472.50.07060.04-0.14-0.51
0.33-0.13750.06420.04-0.13-0.68
0.20-0.1077.50.04840.03-0.10-0.81
0.12-0.07800.03280.02-0.07-0.89
0.07-0.0582.50.02120.01-0.04-0.94
0.04-0.03850.01350.01-0.03-0.96
0.03-0.0287.50.00870.01-0.02-0.98
0.02-0.02900.00560.00-0.02-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot356072.58597.51201K0
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

spot22.54057.57592.51202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 8K call contracts, 9K 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: SQM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk