How to calculate max pain

The Quant Data options data service ended on 14 October 2026. This is an educational explanation, not a current calculator or data feed.

Max pain is the candidate settlement price at which the total intrinsic payout to option holders is smallest, given a particular expiration and open-interest snapshot.

1. Use one expiration and a dated chain of call and put open interest.
2. For each candidate price S, sum max(S − K, 0) × call open interest and max(K − S, 0) × put open interest across strikes K, with each contract's multiplier.
3. Choose the candidate with the smallest total payout. Keep the expiration and input date attached to the result.

This arithmetic is not a forecast that the price will finish at that level. See the max pain explanation and the archived empirical study.