Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 3:18 PM ET

VFC max pain

Spot (delayed)$14.74
Max pain · Fri, Aug 28$15+1.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.96±6.5% by Fri, Aug 28
Put/Call OI0.602K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$16largest call OI
Put wall$15.5largest put OI
IV3040.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$56Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $13

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$16+8.6%4d
Fri, Aug 28$15+1.8%11d
Fri, Sep 4$16+8.6%18d
Fri, Sep 11$14-5.0%25d
Fri, Sep 18$20+35.7%32d
Fri, Sep 25$15+1.8%39d
Fri, Oct 2$15+1.8%46d
Fri, Nov 20$16+8.6%95d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot15121416182022$2M$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 — 15 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot15121415.51718.520.5857857
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VFC 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

spot15121415.51718.520.58484
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spot121416171921174%42%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 45.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 28

spotflip 13121415.51718.520.5+$37K$37K
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
0.96-0.01120.04560.00-0.01-0.04
0.93-0.01130.10490.00-0.01-0.07
0.88-0.0113.50.17350.01-0.01-0.13
0.77-0.01140.27400.01-0.01-0.23
0.61-0.0214.50.36000.01-0.02-0.39
0.43-0.02150.36910.01-0.02-0.58
0.27-0.0215.50.30120.01-0.02-0.74
0.16-0.01160.21270.01-0.01-0.84
0.10-0.0116.50.14400.01-0.01-0.90
0.07-0.01170.10020.00-0.01-0.94
0.06-0.0117.50.07290.00-0.01-0.95
0.04-0.01180.05520.00-0.01-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot9141720233510K0
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

spot2.59.51418.52331124K124K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 273K call contracts, 328K 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: VFC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk