Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 11:21 AM ET

VKTX max pain

Spot (delayed)$33.18
Max pain · Fri, Aug 14$33.5+1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.93±2.8% by Fri, Aug 14
Put/Call OI0.362K puts / 7K calls
Call wall$35largest call OI
Put wall$29largest put OI
IV3068.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$87Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $25.5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 14$33.5+1.0%today
Fri, Aug 21$32.5-2.0%7d
Fri, Aug 28$35+5.5%14d
Fri, Sep 4$33-0.5%21d
Fri, Sep 11$34+2.5%28d
Fri, Sep 18$32.5-2.0%35d
Fri, Sep 25$34+2.5%42d
Fri, Oct 2$29-12.6%49d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot33.5202836445260$15M$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 — 33.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 14

spot33.52026313641471K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VKTX open contracts per strike for Fri, Aug 14.

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 14

spot33.5202631364147714714
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 14

spot293133363841245%42%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 66.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 14

spotflip 25.5222832364044+$125K$125K
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 14

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99-0.0129.50.01660.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.01300.02900.00-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.0230.50.05080.00-0.02-0.03
0.95-0.03310.08930.00-0.03-0.05
0.90-0.0531.50.15480.00-0.05-0.10
0.82-0.11320.25320.01-0.11-0.18
0.67-0.2232.50.36060.01-0.22-0.33
0.48-0.33330.39820.01-0.33-0.52
0.30-0.2033.50.33250.01-0.20-0.70
0.18-0.11340.23290.01-0.11-0.82
0.11-0.0634.50.15240.00-0.06-0.89
0.07-0.04350.09840.00-0.04-0.93
0.04-0.0235.50.06430.00-0.02-0.96
0.03-0.02360.04280.00-0.01-0.97
0.02-0.0136.50.02920.00-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 56 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1525303540456K0
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

spot12.526.533.540.54982.524K24K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 193K call contracts, 41K 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: VKTX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk