Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 20, 1:38 PM ET

MSFT max pain

Spot (delayed)$493.99
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$460-6.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$26.15±5.3% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.56178K puts / 321K calls
Call wall$550largest call OI
Put wall$300largest put OI
IV3023.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$289.7Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $500
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 28usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Mon, Sep 21$495+0.2%1d
Wed, Sep 23$495+0.2%3d
Fri, Sep 25$497.5+0.7%5d
Mon, Sep 28$500+1.2%8d
Wed, Sep 30$487.5-1.3%10d
Fri, Oct 2$490-0.8%12d
Fri, Oct 9$495+0.2%19d
Fri, Oct 16$460-6.9%26d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot460295372449526603680$5.1B$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 — 460 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot46029535540545550555555K55K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MSFT open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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 16

spot4602953554054555055557K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot29537244952660368083%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 500295355405455505555+$108.4M$108.4M
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 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.85-0.144600.00640.32-0.15-0.15
0.82-0.164650.00740.36-0.17-0.18
0.78-0.184700.00850.41-0.18-0.22
0.74-0.204750.00950.45-0.20-0.27
0.69-0.214800.01050.48-0.22-0.32
0.64-0.224850.01140.52-0.23-0.37
0.58-0.234900.01200.54-0.23-0.43
0.52-0.234950.01230.55-0.24-0.49
0.46-0.235000.01240.54-0.23-0.56
0.40-0.225050.01210.53-0.23-0.62
0.34-0.215100.01150.50-0.22-0.68
0.28-0.195150.01070.47-0.20-0.73
0.23-0.175200.00970.42-0.18-0.79
0.19-0.155250.00860.38-0.17-0.83
0.15-0.135300.00750.33-0.15-0.87

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

spot400450477.5500522.555013K0
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

spot220345415485555630175K175K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2.2M call contracts, 1.2M 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