Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 7, 12:26 AM ET

V max pain

Spot (delayed)$368.25
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$360-2.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$14.93±4.1% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI4.6013K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$385largest call OI
Put wall$200largest put OI
IV3020.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $375

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 7$360-2.2%1d
Fri, Aug 14$357.5-2.9%8d
Fri, Aug 21$345-6.3%15d
Fri, Aug 28$360-2.2%22d
Fri, Sep 4$365-0.9%29d
Fri, Sep 11$360-2.2%36d
Fri, Sep 18$340-7.7%43d
Fri, Oct 16$370+0.5%71d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot360190241292343394445$71M$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 — 360 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot3601902352803253704151K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)V open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 28.

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 28

spot360190235280325370415206206
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot22526931335740144580%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 20.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spotflip 375230270310350390430+$1.9M$1.9M
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 28

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.043350.00430.09-0.05-0.05
0.93-0.053400.00600.12-0.06-0.07
0.90-0.073450.00820.16-0.08-0.10
0.86-0.093500.01100.21-0.10-0.14
0.80-0.123550.01430.26-0.13-0.20
0.72-0.143600.01750.31-0.15-0.28
0.63-0.163650.02010.34-0.16-0.38
0.53-0.173700.02150.36-0.17-0.48
0.42-0.163750.02130.35-0.16-0.59
0.32-0.153800.01940.33-0.15-0.69
0.23-0.133850.01650.28-0.13-0.78
0.16-0.103900.01320.23-0.10-0.85
0.11-0.083950.01010.18-0.07-0.91
0.08-0.064000.00740.14-0.05-0.94
0.05-0.044050.00530.10-0.03-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 52 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot190245300342.53704005K0
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

spot140245300352.5382.543524K24K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 236K call contracts, 237K 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: V workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk