Max pain calculator (paste the open interest)
Where would the most options expire worth the least? Paste the open interest from any option chain. See the total paid at every strike, and the max pain strike.
| If the stock ends at | Paid to call holders | Paid to put holders | Total paid |
|---|
How it works: pick one strike as the price at expiry. Every call below that price is in the money, so its holders collect (price − strike) × 100 for each open contract. Every put above that price is in the money too, and its holders collect (strike − price) × 100 per contract. Add it all up. Do that for every strike. The max pain strike is the one where the total is the smallest: the price where the most options expire worth the least. Open interest is the number of contracts still open. Copy it from the option chain for one expiry date.
Open interest isn't a forecast
Max pain is a fact about today's open contracts. It is not a prediction of where the stock will close. The idea behind it is that the stock gets "pulled" toward the strike where option holders collect the least. Some weeks it seems to work. Plenty of weeks it doesn't. News, earnings and the whole market move a stock far more than open interest does. And open interest changes every day, so the max pain strike can move by Friday. Read it as one more number on the chain, like open interest itself, not as a target.
How sellers actually use it
If you sell options, the strikes with big open interest are worth knowing. Price can stall near them on expiry day, which is where pin risk comes from: you don't know until the weekend if you got assigned. In the wheel strategy, pick your strike from your own plan first. Then look at max pain to see if your strike sits right on a crowded spot.
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