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

MSTR max pain

Spot (delayed)$130.51
Max pain · Fri, Sep 25$125-4.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.73±10.5% by Fri, Sep 25
Put/Call OI1.8642K puts / 23K calls
Call wall$140largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3068.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$485Kper 1% move

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
Fri, Sep 18$120-8.1%7d
Fri, Sep 25$125-4.2%14d
Fri, Oct 2$130-0.4%21d
Fri, Oct 9$135+3.4%28d
Fri, Oct 16$100-23.4%35d
Fri, Oct 23$135+3.4%42d
Fri, Oct 30$123-5.8%49d
Fri, Nov 20$135+3.4%70d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1254073106139172205$251M$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 — 125 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot12540881111271371504K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MSTR open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 25.

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

spot4090111126136149+1K1K
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: 100 +1K · 105 +960 · 95 +649 · 125 +464

Volume by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot12540881111271371504K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot4073106139172205233%65%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 67.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 25

spot4088111127137150+$724K$724K
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
0.71-0.211230.01990.09-0.21-0.29
0.69-0.221240.02060.09-0.22-0.31
0.67-0.221250.02120.09-0.23-0.33
0.62-0.231270.02210.10-0.24-0.38
0.60-0.241280.02240.10-0.24-0.40
0.58-0.241290.02270.10-0.24-0.42
0.56-0.251300.02290.10-0.25-0.45
0.53-0.251310.02300.10-0.25-0.47
0.51-0.251320.02300.10-0.25-0.49
0.49-0.251330.02290.10-0.25-0.52
0.46-0.251340.02280.10-0.25-0.54
0.44-0.251350.02260.10-0.25-0.56
0.42-0.251360.02230.10-0.25-0.58
0.40-0.241370.02200.10-0.25-0.60
0.38-0.241380.02160.10-0.24-0.62

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

spot58811613215025028K0
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

07-2808-0508-1308-2108-3109-08143.7992.62
— 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

spot57514022035067081K81K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1.4M call contracts, 1.1M 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: MSTR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk