Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 4:30 PM ET

WWD max pain

Spot (delayed)$370.5
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$400+8.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.35±3.3% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI1.061K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$440largest call OI
Put wall$350largest put OI
IV3034.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.1Mper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$400+8.0%4d
Fri, Sep 18$360-2.8%32d
Fri, Oct 16$380+2.6%60d
Fri, Dec 18$360-2.8%123d
Fri, Jan 15$310-16.3%151d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot400280340400460520580$18M$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 — 400 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot400280330380430480530510510
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)WWD 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

spot4002803303804304805301010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot290328366404442480132%32%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 39.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot280330380430480530+$669K$669K
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
0.99-0.123000.00100.01-0.14-0.02
0.98-0.153100.00150.02-0.18-0.02
0.97-0.213200.00240.03-0.23-0.03
0.95-0.283300.00390.04-0.30-0.05
0.92-0.393400.00650.06-0.40-0.08
0.86-0.533500.01140.09-0.53-0.14
0.74-0.703600.01960.13-0.69-0.26
0.52-0.783700.02660.16-0.77-0.48
0.28-0.653800.02150.13-0.65-0.72
0.14-0.473900.01280.09-0.47-0.85
0.08-0.344000.00750.06-0.33-0.92
0.05-0.244100.00460.04-0.24-0.95
0.03-0.184200.00300.03-0.18-0.97
0.02-0.144300.00200.02-0.13-0.98
0.02-0.114400.00140.02-0.10-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 29 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2002803504204905606980
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

spot175230310390470550730730
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 4K call contracts, 2K 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: WWD workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk