Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 3:44 AM ET

MSFT max pain

Spot (delayed)$494.77
Max pain · Wed, Sep 16$495+0.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.52±1.9% by Wed, Sep 16
Put/Call OI0.843K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$500largest call OI
Put wall$490largest put OI
IV3023.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3.1Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $505
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 28usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Mon, Sep 14$495+0.0%3d
Wed, Sep 16$495+0.0%5d
Fri, Sep 18$445-10.1%7d
Mon, Sep 21$490-1.0%10d
Wed, Sep 23$490-1.0%12d
Fri, Sep 25$490-1.0%14d
Fri, Oct 2$490-1.0%21d
Fri, Oct 9$500+1.1%28d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot495435464493522551580$23M$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 — 495 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot495435460480500520540694694
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MSFT open contracts per strike for Wed, Sep 16.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-102026-09-11

spot440460477.5495512.5530+159159
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: 505 +159 · 455 +118 · 487.5 +117 · 512.5 +109

Volume by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot495435460480500520540560560
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spot43546449352255158056%13%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 20.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Sep 16

spotflip 505435460480500520540+$2.7M$2.7M
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 · Wed, Sep 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.92-0.18477.50.01090.09-0.18-0.08
0.90-0.234800.01400.11-0.23-0.10
0.86-0.28482.50.01750.13-0.28-0.14
0.81-0.344850.02140.16-0.34-0.19
0.76-0.40487.50.02520.18-0.40-0.24
0.69-0.454900.02860.21-0.45-0.31
0.61-0.49492.50.03120.22-0.49-0.39
0.53-0.514950.03260.23-0.51-0.47
0.45-0.50497.50.03260.23-0.51-0.55
0.37-0.485000.03120.22-0.48-0.63
0.30-0.43502.50.02860.20-0.44-0.70
0.23-0.385050.02520.18-0.38-0.77
0.18-0.32507.50.02130.15-0.32-0.83
0.13-0.265100.01740.13-0.26-0.87
0.10-0.20512.50.01380.10-0.20-0.91

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 45 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot275385452.549052557529K0
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

07-2808-0508-1308-2108-3109-08512.97385.00
— 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

spot220340410480550630174K174K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2.5M call contracts, 1.3M 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