Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 2:23 PM ET

UMC max pain

Spot (delayed)$19.03
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$21+10.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.35±7.1% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.6416K puts / 26K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$24largest put OI
IV3063.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$108Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $20

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$21+10.4%7d
Fri, Sep 18$19-0.1%35d
Fri, Oct 16$18-5.4%63d
Fri, Jan 15$14-26.4%154d
Fri, Jan 21$17-10.6%525d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot21121824293541$40M$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 — 21 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot211217222732375K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)UMC 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

spot211217222732371414
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot121824293541250%58%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 63.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 20121620242832+$282K$282K
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
1.000.00120.00060.000.00
1.000.00130.00140.000.00-0.00
1.00-0.00140.00410.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00150.01250.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.01160.03760.00-0.01-0.03
0.91-0.02170.09940.01-0.02-0.10
0.75-0.04180.19020.01-0.04-0.25
0.53-0.05190.23460.01-0.05-0.47
0.32-0.04200.19990.01-0.04-0.69
0.17-0.03210.13590.01-0.03-0.83
0.09-0.02220.08200.00-0.02-0.91
0.05-0.01230.04680.00-0.01-0.95
0.02-0.01240.02600.00-0.01-0.98
0.01-0.00250.01440.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.00260.00790.00-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 30 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot7131925313732K0
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

spot181522293639K39K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 160K call contracts, 72K 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: UMC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk