Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 6:50 AM ET

UL max pain

Spot (delayed)$62.37
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$62.5+0.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.67±2.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.908K puts / 9K calls
Call wall$65largest call OI
Put wall$57.5largest put OI
IV3019.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.2Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $62.5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$62.5+0.2%6d
Fri, Aug 28$63+1.0%13d
Fri, Sep 4$65+4.2%20d
Fri, Sep 11$65+4.2%27d
Fri, Sep 18$65+4.2%34d
Fri, Sep 25$60-3.8%41d
Fri, Nov 20$57.5-7.8%97d
Fri, Dec 18$62.5+0.2%125d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot62.5405162738495$24M$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 — 62.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot62.54054596470802K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UL 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

spot62.54054596470801010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot48535964707580%19%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 20.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 62.5405459647080+$994K$994K
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
0.93-0.02580.04300.01-0.02-0.07
0.91-0.0258.50.05210.02-0.02-0.09
0.90-0.03590.06360.02-0.03-0.11
0.87-0.0359.50.07790.02-0.03-0.13
0.84-0.03600.09580.03-0.03-0.16
0.75-0.04610.14400.03-0.04-0.26
0.59-0.04620.19640.04-0.04-0.41
0.49-0.0462.50.20860.04-0.04-0.52
0.39-0.04630.20120.04-0.04-0.62
0.23-0.03640.14880.03-0.03-0.78
0.14-0.03650.09740.02-0.03-0.88
0.09-0.02660.06360.02-0.02-0.93
0.06-0.02670.04290.01-0.02-0.96
0.05-0.0167.50.03570.01-0.01-0.97
0.04-0.01680.03000.01-0.01-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 39 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot57.562.5677177.52K0
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

spot305057.56371787K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 41K call contracts, 35K 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: UL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk