Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 7:10 AM ET

VRDN max pain

Spot (delayed)$21.6
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$19-12.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.13±9.8% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.02900 puts / 881 calls
Call wall$19largest call OI
Put wall$18largest put OI
IV3074.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$19Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $14

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$19-12.0%7d
Fri, Sep 18$21-2.8%35d
Fri, Oct 16$20-7.4%63d
Fri, Jan 15$11-49.1%154d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot19101418222630$1M$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 — 19 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot19101417202330323323
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)VRDN 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

spot1910141720233011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot121619232630292%74%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 81.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spotflip 14101417202330+$9K$9K
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
0.99-0.01150.00940.00-0.01-0.01
0.98-0.01160.01470.00-0.01-0.02
0.96-0.01170.02450.00-0.02-0.04
0.94-0.02180.04150.00-0.02-0.07
0.89-0.03190.06820.01-0.03-0.11
0.80-0.05200.10420.01-0.05-0.20
0.68-0.06210.13860.01-0.06-0.32
0.53-0.07220.15370.01-0.07-0.47
0.38-0.06230.14360.01-0.06-0.62
0.27-0.06240.11890.01-0.06-0.73
0.18-0.05250.09180.01-0.05-0.82
0.03-0.01300.01990.00-0.01-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 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

spot515202530354920
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

spot18152229365K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 7K 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: VRDN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk