Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 5, 4:15 PM ET

SSYS max pain

Spot (delayed)$8.89
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$10+12.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.68±18.9% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.41800 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$10largest call OI
Put wall$7.5largest put OI
IV3069.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$22Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $10

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Aug 7 · 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+12.5%15d
Fri, Sep 18$10+12.5%43d
Fri, Dec 18$7.5-15.6%134d
Fri, Jan 15$10+12.5%162d
Fri, Mar 19$5-43.7%225d
Fri, Jan 21$7.5-15.6%533d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot10358101315$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot102.557.51012.5152K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SSYS 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

spot102.557.51012.5152121
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot579111315227%77%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 88.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 1057.51012.515+$28K$28K
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
0.99-0.002.50.00480.00-0.00-0.01
0.96-0.0150.02590.00-0.01-0.04
0.83-0.017.50.14470.01-0.01-0.17
0.28-0.02100.21570.01-0.02-0.72
0.10-0.0112.50.08140.00-0.01-0.90
0.06-0.01150.04200.00-0.01-0.94

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

spot2.57.512.517.522.53K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.56K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 16K call contracts, 3K 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: SSYS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk