Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 16, 7:20 AM ET

TMDX max pain

Spot (delayed)$88.01
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$80-9.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.13±5.8% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.6415K puts / 9K calls
Call wall$80largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3050.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.8Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $80

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$80-9.1%5d
Fri, Sep 18$80-9.1%33d
Fri, Oct 16$80-9.1%61d
Fri, Dec 18$90+2.3%124d
Fri, Jan 15$65-26.1%152d
Fri, Jan 21$65-26.1%523d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8040557085100115$41M$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 — 80 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot80405570851001156K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)TMDX 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

spot80405570851001157070
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot45597387101115190%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 50.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 8050658095110+$620K$620K
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
1.00-0.00550.00020.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.00600.00050.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.01650.00130.00-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.02700.00340.00-0.02-0.01
0.96-0.04750.00910.01-0.04-0.03
0.90-0.09800.02360.02-0.09-0.10
0.73-0.15850.05060.04-0.16-0.27
0.43-0.18900.06360.05-0.18-0.57
0.18-0.12950.04110.03-0.12-0.82
0.07-0.061000.01910.02-0.06-0.93
0.03-0.031050.00830.01-0.03-0.97
0.01-0.011100.00370.00-0.01-0.99
0.01-0.011150.00180.00-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3565951251551854K0
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

spot30651001351702107K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 35K call contracts, 26K 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: TMDX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk