Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 17, 12:28 AM ET

MSFT max pain

Spot (delayed)$492.44
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$450-8.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.85±1.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.63248K puts / 394K calls
Call wall$525largest call OI
Put wall$480largest put OI
IV3025.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$212.7Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $430
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 28usually after the close

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 18$450-8.6%2d
Mon, Sep 21$497.5+1.0%5d
Wed, Sep 23$497.5+1.0%7d
Fri, Sep 25$500+1.5%9d
Mon, Sep 28$502.5+2.0%12d
Wed, Sep 30$495+0.5%14d
Fri, Oct 2$490-0.5%16d
Fri, Oct 9$500+1.5%23d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot450275380485590695800$11.2B$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 — 450 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot45027536043048051056028K28K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MSFT open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-152026-09-16

spot300400450490510545+5K5K
Net contracts opened (up, green) or closed (down, red) per strike since the previous snapshot — where the walls are building and where they’re unwinding. Biggest moves: 507.5 +5K · 590 2K · 530 2K · 500 966

Volume by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot45027536043048051056013K13K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot370426482538594650117%24%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 29.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spotflip 430360420460495515560+$75.8M$75.8M
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, Sep 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.98-0.084600.00270.01-0.08-0.02
0.97-0.124650.00450.02-0.13-0.03
0.95-0.214700.00770.04-0.22-0.05
0.91-0.404750.01350.06-0.40-0.09
0.83-0.714800.02200.09-0.71-0.17
0.70-1.064850.03100.13-1.07-0.30
0.53-1.264900.03620.14-1.28-0.47
0.44-1.23492.50.03610.14-1.26-0.56
0.35-1.134950.03420.14-1.15-0.65
0.27-0.96497.50.03060.12-0.98-0.74
0.20-0.765000.02600.10-0.78-0.81
0.15-0.58502.50.02100.09-0.57-0.86
0.10-0.425050.01630.07-0.40-0.91
0.07-0.29507.50.01230.05-0.28-0.94
0.05-0.205100.00910.04-0.19-0.96

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot275375450487.5517.556028K0
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.

Max pain history — nearest expiry vs price

07-2808-0608-1708-2609-0409-15512.97385.00
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot220340410480550625174K174K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2.6M call contracts, 1.4M 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: MSFT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk