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

MSFT max pain

Spot (delayed)$494.77
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$490-1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$17.67±3.6% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI0.3915K puts / 38K calls
Call wall$530largest call OI
Put wall$450largest put OI
IV3023.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$22.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $525
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

spot490330394458522586650$415M$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 — 490 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot49033043047050554560011K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MSFT open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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

spot400435470500535580+299299
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: 610 +299 · 490 +148 · 487.5 +132 · 515 +118

Volume by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot4903304304705055456005K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot34040246452658865067%17%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spotflip 525340430465495530565+$16.8M$16.8M
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 25

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.90-0.154650.00670.17-0.15-0.10
0.87-0.184700.00860.21-0.18-0.13
0.83-0.224750.01070.25-0.22-0.17
0.77-0.254800.01300.30-0.26-0.23
0.70-0.284850.01510.34-0.29-0.30
0.66-0.30487.50.01610.35-0.30-0.34
0.62-0.314900.01680.37-0.31-0.38
0.54-0.324950.01780.39-0.32-0.47
0.45-0.325000.01790.38-0.32-0.56
0.36-0.295050.01700.36-0.30-0.65
0.28-0.265100.01540.33-0.27-0.73
0.21-0.235150.01320.28-0.23-0.80
0.15-0.185200.01080.23-0.19-0.86
0.11-0.145250.00850.19-0.15-0.91
0.07-0.115300.00640.14-0.11-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 43 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