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

MSFT max pain

Spot (delayed)$529.05
Max pain · Fri, Apr 16$510-3.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$81.95±15.5% by Fri, Apr 16
Put/Call OI1.4619K puts / 13K calls
Call wall$600largest call OI
Put wall$460largest put OI
IV3025.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$868Kper 1% move

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

spot510300400500600700800$285M$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 — 510 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Apr 16

spot5103003954454955456202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MSFT open contracts per strike for Fri, Apr 16.

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

spot330405455500545640+189−189
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. Biggest moves: 460 +189 · 470 +178 · 425 +149 · 640 +149

Volume by strike · Fri, Apr 16

spot5103003954454955456201K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Apr 16

spot30040050060070080043%27%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Apr 16

spot300395445495545620+$1.2M−$1.2M
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, Apr 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.70-0.104950.00331.25-0.11-0.30
0.69-0.105000.00341.28-0.11-0.32
0.67-0.105050.00351.30-0.11-0.34
0.65-0.105100.00361.33-0.11-0.36
0.63-0.115150.00361.35-0.12-0.38
0.61-0.115200.00371.38-0.12-0.40
0.60-0.115250.00381.39-0.12-0.42
0.58-0.115300.00381.41-0.12-0.44
0.56-0.115350.00391.42-0.12-0.46
0.54-0.115400.00391.43-0.12-0.48
0.52-0.115450.00391.43-0.12-0.50
0.50-0.115500.00391.44-0.12-0.52
0.48-0.115550.00391.43-0.12-0.54
0.46-0.115600.00391.43-0.12-0.56
0.44-0.115650.00391.42-0.12-0.58

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 59 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