Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 11:21 AM ET

STNG max pain

Spot (delayed)$73.86
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$77.5+4.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.8±5.1% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.445K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$77.5largest call OI
Put wall$72.5largest put OI
IV3036.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.2Mper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$77.5+4.9%9d
Fri, Sep 18$77.5+4.9%37d
Fri, Oct 16$75+1.5%65d
Fri, Jan 15$55-25.5%156d
Fri, Jan 21$57.5-22.2%527d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot77.55566778899110$11M$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 — 77.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot77.5556572.58087.51002K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)STNG 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

spot77.5556572.58087.5100255255
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot5565758595105141%33%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 37.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot556572.58087.5100+$911K$911K
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
1.000.00550.00080.00-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.01600.00330.00-0.01-0.02
0.99-0.0162.50.00670.00-0.02-0.03
0.97-0.02650.01400.01-0.03-0.05
0.93-0.0467.50.02920.02-0.05-0.10
0.84-0.07700.05650.03-0.07-0.20
0.67-0.1072.50.08670.04-0.09-0.37
0.44-0.10750.09000.05-0.09-0.58
0.26-0.0877.50.06730.04-0.08-0.76
0.14-0.06800.04360.03-0.06-0.86
0.09-0.0482.50.02740.02-0.04-0.92
0.05-0.03850.01740.01-0.03-0.95
0.03-0.0287.50.01120.01-0.02-0.97
0.02-0.02900.00750.01-0.01-0.98
0.01-0.01950.00350.00-0.01-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot45657585951152K0
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

spot17.53552.57087.51153K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 14K call contracts, 14K 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: STNG workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk