Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 11:11 PM ET

VIXM max pain

Spot (delayed)$14.22
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$13-8.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.39±2.7% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.017 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$15largest call OI
Put wall$15largest put OI
IV3026.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$51Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$13-8.6%7d
Fri, Sep 18$12-15.6%35d
Fri, Dec 18$11-22.6%126d
Fri, Jan 15$13-8.6%154d
Fri, Mar 19$11-22.6%217d
Thu, Jun 17$15+5.5%307d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot13131415171819$1M$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 — 13 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot1313151719548548
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VIXM 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

spot13131517191515
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot13141415151659%14%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 15.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot13151719+$34K$34K
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
0.94-0.01130.15390.00-0.01-0.07
0.63-0.01140.67940.01-0.01-0.37
0.16-0.01150.31090.01-0.01-0.84
0.06-0.01160.10980.00-0.01-0.94
0.03-0.01170.04930.00-0.00-0.97
0.02-0.00180.02580.00-0.00-0.98
0.01-0.00190.01490.00-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1101316192218K0
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

spot171319253120K20K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 59K call contracts, 383 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: VIXM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk