Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 15, 7:40 AM ET

YSS max pain

Spot (delayed)$10.87
Max pain · Fri, Aug 21$17.5+61.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.53±14.0% by Fri, Aug 21
Put/Call OI0.6913K puts / 18K calls
Call wall$15largest call OI
Put wall$12.5largest put OI
IV30111.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$15Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$17.5+61.0%6d
Fri, Sep 18$15+38.0%34d
Fri, Nov 20$30+176.0%97d
Fri, Dec 18$30+176.0%125d
Fri, Jan 15$30+176.0%153d
Fri, Feb 19$35+222.0%188d
Fri, Mar 19$45+314.0%216d
Fri, Apr 16$35+222.0%244d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot17.551729415365$74M$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 — 17.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot17.5512.5203045603K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)YSS 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

spot17.5512.5203045602K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot51423324150436%109%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 110.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Aug 21

spot7.512.517.522.53040+$20K$20K
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
1.0050.00010.000.00
0.99-0.007.50.01300.00-0.00-0.01
0.74-0.04100.19790.01-0.04-0.26
0.22-0.0412.50.16960.01-0.04-0.78
0.04-0.01150.04710.00-0.01-0.95
0.01-0.0017.50.01090.00-0.00-0.99
0.00-0.00200.00260.00-0.00-1.00
0.000.0022.50.00070.00-1.00
0.00250.00020.00-1.00
300.00040.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 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

spot512.5203045605K0
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

spot2.51017.52540555K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 31K call contracts, 23K 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: YSS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk