Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 12, 3:12 PM ET

VCX max pain

Spot (delayed)$32.02
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$40+24.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.25±16.4% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI4.7011K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$40largest call OI
Put wall$35largest put OI
IV30126.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$314Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$40+24.9%9d
Fri, Sep 18$40+24.9%37d
Fri, Oct 16$100+212.3%65d
Fri, Jan 15$60+87.4%156d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot4018447197124150$19M$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 — 40 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot4017.53560851101354K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VCX 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

spot4017.5356085110135535535
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot18447197124150493%90%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 124.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot17.525405570+$168K$168K
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
1.00-0.1417.50.00500.00-0.02-0.02
1.00-0.14200.00040.01-0.04-0.05
0.99-0.1422.50.01090.00-0.07-0.09
0.92-0.17250.03940.01-0.11-0.17
0.62-0.20300.05210.02-0.17-0.39
0.37-0.18350.04600.02-0.17-0.61
0.20-0.13400.03350.01-0.12-0.77
0.10-0.08450.02050.01-0.07-0.86
0.04-0.04500.01120.01-0.04-0.91
0.02-0.02550.00560.00-0.01-0.93
0.01-0.01600.00270.00-0.01-0.94
0.00-0.00650.00120.00-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 29 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot20701201702403408810
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

spot17.5601101602203205K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 12K call contracts, 19K 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: VCX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk