Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 6:24 PM ET

VKTX max pain

Spot (delayed)$33.11
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$32.5-1.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.96±5.9% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.4411K puts / 26K calls
Call wall$40largest call OI
Put wall$25largest put OI
IV3067.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$288Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $17.5

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 14$33.5+1.2%today
Fri, Aug 21$32.5-1.8%7d
Fri, Aug 28$35+5.7%14d
Fri, Sep 4$33-0.3%21d
Fri, Sep 11$34+2.7%28d
Fri, Sep 18$32.5-1.8%35d
Fri, Sep 25$34+2.7%42d
Fri, Oct 2$29-12.4%49d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot32.5152433425160$51M$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 — 32.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot32.51527.5323640455K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VKTX 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

spot32.51527.532364045224224
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot233038455360204%25%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 53.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 17.51527.532364045+$292K$292K
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
0.94-0.02290.04110.01-0.02-0.06
0.90-0.03300.06680.01-0.03-0.10
0.86-0.0430.50.08420.01-0.04-0.14
0.82-0.05310.10440.01-0.05-0.18
0.77-0.0531.50.12600.01-0.05-0.23
0.70-0.06320.14650.02-0.06-0.30
0.62-0.0732.50.16240.02-0.07-0.38
0.54-0.07330.17000.02-0.07-0.46
0.45-0.0733.50.16820.02-0.07-0.55
0.38-0.07340.15810.02-0.07-0.63
0.31-0.0634.50.14280.02-0.06-0.70
0.25-0.06350.12540.01-0.06-0.75
0.20-0.0535.50.10800.01-0.05-0.80
0.17-0.05360.09210.01-0.05-0.84
0.14-0.0436.50.07800.01-0.04-0.87

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 47 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