Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 30, 2:26 AM ET

MSFT max pain

Spot (delayed)$529.05
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$460-13.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$75.15±14.2% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI1.07117K puts / 109K calls
Call wall$460largest call OI
Put wall$350largest put OI
IV3025.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$41.9Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $540

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 30$525-0.8%today
Mon, Nov 2$530+0.2%3d
Wed, Nov 4$532.5+0.7%5d
Fri, Nov 6$530+0.2%7d
Mon, Nov 9$525-0.8%10d
Wed, Nov 11$515-2.7%12d
Fri, Nov 20$480-9.3%21d
Fri, Dec 18$460-13.1%49d
Fri, Jan 15$450-14.9%77d
Fri, Feb 19$500-5.5%112d
Fri, Mar 19$460-13.1%140d
Fri, Apr 16$510-3.6%168d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot460185300415530645760$2.6B$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, Mar 19

spot46018530040050060066012K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MSFT open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

Open-interest change · 2026-10-28 → 2026-10-29

spot270360440520600660+927−927
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. Only strikes observed on both days are compared; 1 strike was in only one day’s snapshot (each keeps its largest strikes) and is left out. Biggest moves: 350 −927 · 500 +661 · 460 −267 · 450 −253

Volume by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot4601853004005006006602K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot18530041553064576074%26%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spotflip 540240330420510600650+$5.7M−$5.7M
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.82-0.074600.00260.87-0.09-0.18
0.79-0.084700.00290.95-0.10-0.21
0.76-0.094800.00321.02-0.11-0.24
0.73-0.104900.00341.10-0.11-0.28
0.69-0.115000.00371.16-0.12-0.32
0.65-0.115100.00391.22-0.12-0.36
0.61-0.125200.00411.26-0.13-0.40
0.57-0.125300.00421.29-0.13-0.44
0.53-0.125400.00431.31-0.13-0.49
0.49-0.125500.00431.31-0.13-0.53
0.44-0.125600.00431.30-0.13-0.58
0.40-0.125700.00421.27-0.12-0.62
0.36-0.125800.00411.24-0.12-0.67
0.33-0.115900.00401.19-0.11-0.71
0.29-0.106000.00381.13-0.10-0.75

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 57 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot27047050053056059021K0
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

07-2808-1308-3109-1610-0210-20544.10385.00
— 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

spot230360430500565640184K184K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2.3M 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 · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk