Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 9:55 PM ET

VNET max pain

Spot (delayed)$7.82
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$8+2.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.05±13.4% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.235K puts / 21K calls
Call wall$9largest call OI
Put wall$7largest put OI
IV3091.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$222Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $8

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$8+2.3%4d
Fri, Sep 18$7-10.5%32d
Fri, Dec 18$8+2.3%123d
Fri, Jan 15$8+2.3%151d
Fri, Mar 19$7-10.5%214d
Fri, Dec 17$7-10.5%487d
Fri, Jan 21$7-10.5%522d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8147101316$14M$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 — 8 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot814710131612K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VNET 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

spot81471013164K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot689111214535%150%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 157.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 81581114+$178K$178K
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
1.00-0.0010.0007-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.0020.00210.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.0130.00510.00-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.0140.01230.00-0.01-0.01
0.97-0.0150.03060.00-0.01-0.03
0.93-0.0260.08170.00-0.02-0.07
0.81-0.0470.21260.00-0.04-0.20
0.52-0.0780.32610.00-0.07-0.49
0.26-0.0690.24000.00-0.06-0.74
0.14-0.04100.14450.00-0.04-0.86
0.08-0.03110.08770.00-0.03-0.92
0.05-0.02120.05550.00-0.02-0.95
0.03-0.01130.03660.00-0.01-0.97
0.02-0.01140.02500.00-0.01-0.98
0.02-0.01150.01760.00-0.01-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1712172216K0
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

spot161116212622K22K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 90K call contracts, 26K 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: VNET workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk