Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 27, 4:06 PM ET

MSTR max pain

Spot (delayed)$140.96
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$160+13.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$29.8±21.1% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.94167K puts / 178K calls
Call wall$1,080largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV3071.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2.4Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · 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$144+2.2%3d
Fri, Nov 6$157.5+11.7%10d
Fri, Nov 13$160+13.5%17d
Fri, Nov 20$135-4.2%24d
Fri, Nov 27$155+10.0%31d
Fri, Dec 4$160+13.5%38d
Fri, Dec 18$160+13.5%52d
Fri, Jan 15$150+6.4%80d
Fri, Mar 19$145+2.9%143d
Fri, Apr 16$145+2.9%171d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot16052204356508651080$11.2B$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 — 160 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot16057012517523050019K19K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MSTR open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 18.

Open-interest change · 2026-10-23 → 2026-10-26

spot1080125165210400+405−405
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; 2 strikes were in only one day’s snapshot (each keeps its largest strikes) and are left out. Biggest moves: 150 −405 · 10 +370 · 110 −237 · 175 +204

Volume by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot1605701251752305001K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot52204356508651080280%67%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 70.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot3085130170210335+$841K−$841K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.88-0.071050.00480.11-0.08-0.12
0.85-0.081100.00580.13-0.09-0.15
0.81-0.101150.00680.14-0.10-0.19
0.77-0.111200.00780.16-0.11-0.23
0.73-0.121250.00860.18-0.12-0.28
0.68-0.131300.00940.19-0.13-0.32
0.63-0.141350.01000.20-0.14-0.38
0.57-0.141400.01040.21-0.14-0.43
0.52-0.141450.01060.21-0.14-0.48
0.47-0.141500.01060.21-0.14-0.53
0.42-0.141550.01040.21-0.14-0.58
0.38-0.141600.01010.20-0.14-0.63
0.34-0.131650.00970.19-0.13-0.67
0.30-0.121700.00910.18-0.12-0.71
0.26-0.121750.00860.17-0.12-0.75

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot50112133146172.522040K0
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

07-2808-1208-2709-1109-2810-13169.8892.62
— 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

spot57514119531060074K74K
■ 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 · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk