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

VKTX max pain

Spot (delayed)$33.11
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$32.5-1.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.68±17.1% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.234K puts / 16K calls
Call wall$40largest call OI
Put wall$22.5largest put OI
IV3067.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$483Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $17.5

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$32.5-1.8%6d
Fri, Aug 28$35+5.7%13d
Fri, Sep 4$33-0.3%20d
Fri, Sep 11$34+2.7%27d
Fri, Sep 18$32.5-1.8%34d
Fri, Sep 25$34+2.7%41d
Fri, Oct 2$29-12.4%48d
Fri, Oct 16$30-9.4%62d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot32.5152433425160$28M$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, Sep 18

spot32.51522.53037.545554K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VKTX open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

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, Sep 18

spot32.51522.53037.54555119119
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot182635435260139%46%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 69.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 17.51522.53037.54555+$193K$193K
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, Sep 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.00150.00180.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0117.50.00360.00-0.01-0.01
0.97-0.01200.00690.01-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.0122.50.01260.01-0.01-0.06
0.90-0.02250.02140.02-0.02-0.10
0.83-0.0327.50.03300.03-0.03-0.18
0.72-0.04300.04480.04-0.04-0.28
0.59-0.0432.50.05220.04-0.04-0.41
0.47-0.04350.05280.04-0.04-0.55
0.35-0.0437.50.04810.04-0.04-0.66
0.27-0.04400.04110.03-0.04-0.75
0.20-0.0342.50.03400.03-0.03-0.81
0.15-0.03450.02770.02-0.03-0.86
0.12-0.0347.50.02250.02-0.03-0.90
0.09-0.02500.01830.02-0.02-0.93

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 17 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot152933.537.541.547.55K0
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

spot12.5283440487523K23K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 187K call contracts, 38K 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