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

MSFT max pain

Spot (delayed)$494.77
Max pain · Fri, Oct 9$500+1.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$25.7±5.2% by Fri, Oct 9
Put/Call OI0.444K puts / 8K calls
Call wall$525largest call OI
Put wall$435largest put OI
IV3023.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$8.8Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $505
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 28usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 — 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

spot500355406457508559610$63M$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 — 500 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spot5003554304655005355702K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MSFT open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 9.

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, Oct 9

spot500355430465500535570254254
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spot35540645750855961050%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spotflip 505355430465500535570+$3.7M$3.7M
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 · Fri, Oct 9

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.87-0.144600.00600.30-0.14-0.13
0.84-0.154650.00700.34-0.15-0.16
0.80-0.174700.00810.39-0.17-0.20
0.76-0.194750.00920.43-0.19-0.24
0.71-0.204800.01020.47-0.21-0.29
0.66-0.224850.01110.50-0.22-0.34
0.60-0.234900.01180.53-0.23-0.40
0.54-0.234950.01220.55-0.23-0.47
0.48-0.235000.01240.55-0.23-0.53
0.42-0.225050.01220.54-0.23-0.59
0.36-0.215100.01170.52-0.22-0.65
0.31-0.205150.01100.48-0.21-0.71
0.26-0.185200.01010.45-0.19-0.76
0.21-0.165250.00900.40-0.17-0.81
0.17-0.145300.00790.35-0.16-0.85

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 40 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