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

VNET max pain

Spot (delayed)$7.82
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$8+2.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3±38.4% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.201K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$10largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV3091.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$25Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $10

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

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

spot8159141822$6M$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, Dec 18

spot81591317223K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VNET open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 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, Dec 18

spot8159131722203203
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot159141822263%39%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 82.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 10159131722+$16K$16K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.0010.00200.000.00-0.00
0.990.0020.00600.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.0030.01440.00-0.00-0.03
0.93-0.0040.02900.01-0.00-0.07
0.87-0.0050.04940.01-0.00-0.12
0.79-0.0060.07190.01-0.00-0.20
0.69-0.0170.09020.02-0.01-0.30
0.59-0.0180.10050.02-0.01-0.41
0.50-0.0190.10290.02-0.01-0.50
0.42-0.01100.09950.02-0.01-0.59
0.35-0.01110.09290.02-0.01-0.66
0.29-0.01120.08500.02-0.01-0.71
0.25-0.01130.07680.01-0.01-0.76
0.21-0.01140.06900.01-0.00-0.80
0.18-0.00150.06170.01-0.00-0.83

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 21 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