Max Pain

What is max pain?

Max pain is the strike where outstanding calls and puts on one expiration would be worth the least at expiry. On EZPZ, Intraday Max Pain is TriMetric Max Pain for one ticker: O-Max Pain, P-Max Pain, and V-Max Pain. Type e.g. SPY, then Go. Expiration and Strikes sit on the toolbar. Chart Mode starts on Diverging.

On EZPZ, the live page title is Intraday Max Pain. The eyebrow is TriMetric Max Pain. The ticker line starts on SPY plus last price. The screenshot uses SPY at $761.69. The subline is Max Pain, then Expiry and the listed date. Symbol placeholder is e.g. SPY. Go loads the name. Expiration picks one listed date. Strikes starts at 20. Chart Mode starts on Diverging. Side by Side is the other button. Ten pills sit under that bar, including Stock Price, O-Max Pain, P-Max Pain, V-Max Pain, Put / Call Ratio, Call OI, Put OI, Total OI, Highest Call OI Strike, and Highest Put OI Strike. Three cards follow: O-Max Pain, Open Interest, then P-Max Pain, Premium Weighted, then V-Max Pain, Volume. Each legend is Call Max Pain and Put Max Pain. A yellow Price line marks last price. The banner says live data, market hours only. Conventional Max Pain is the other tab. None of those pills is an order.

On EZPZ, this page is the three max-pain charts for any ticker you search. Ticker Explorer keeps O-Max-Pain, V-Max-Pain, and P-Max-Pain as one row on a one-symbol dashboard, not these three cards. Put to Call Ratio is the Intraday Put/Call Ratio chart of Traded PCR, OI PCR, and Sentiment PCR. The Put / Call Ratio pill here is one number, not that session chart. Gamma Exposure is the searchable strike table with Call Wall and Put Wall. GEX and DEX is the Intraday GEX and DEX chart pair with Gamma Flip. Spot Gamma and Delta is the ($) Open Interest versus ($) Volume bar pair with a Spot line. Expected Move is the DEM and VEM band chart by expiration. Market Maker Exposure is the SPX Flip Level chart with Call Wall, Put Wall, and Expected Move(VEM) and DEM. Market Cross Flow is the SPY, SPXW, and QQQ GEX grid next to candles. Greeks Heatmap is the strike-by-expiration grid with Gravity Magnet Score. Option Depth Flow is the searchable strike-by-time Bubble or Gradient chart. GEX Heatmap is the strike-by-expiration GEX grid with a GEX Details table. Largest Premium By Tickers is the Bullish Flow / Bearish Flow premium leaderboard when you do not have a ticker yet. Index Trader is the index dashboard with Premium Traffic Lights. Top 20 Optionable ranks listed-option names by Vol. * Price. Market Wave is the Current Day chart of Net Call Premium versus Net Put Premium. Net Flow Graph is one ticker you search with Filter ticker, plus Cumulative Volume Delta. Historical Net Premium is the 15D Cumulative lookback with a daily table. 0DTE Graph is the same-day premium chart with Filter ticker. The 0DTE dropdown is the lock. Weekly-DTE Graph is the WTE chart of premium that expires by Friday. 7-DTE Graph is the 7DTE chart of premium in the next 7 days. Supply and Demand X-ray is the ITM Call and Put chart of Price, Supply, and Demand. Money Sentiment is Bought Ratio, Net Sentiment, and Netflow Graph for one ticker. Net Premium Heatmap is the strike-by-expiration grid of Net Premium for one ticker. Movers and Shakers Tide is that same chart job for about 18 mega-cap names. Option Chain is the listed book for one ticker. Live Flow is the tape of prints. Unusual Activity keeps only large, sweep, and block prints. Unusual Activity Intraday is the session scan with a date range. $1M Plus Flow keeps only million-dollar premium. 0DTE Flow keeps only prints that expire today. SPX and SPY Flow locks the tape to SPX, SPXW, and SPY. Open Interest Scan is the OI per Strike and OI per Expiration chart pair. Volume Scan is the Volume by Strike and Volume by Expiration chart pair. Volatility Analysis is Volatility By Open Interest, Open Interest, and Implied Volatility Smile for one ticker. IV Rank Explorer is Current IV (30D), IV Rank (1Y), period IV Rank, and IV Percentile (1Y) plus the IV Rank chart. Historical Volatility is 10D through 90D Volatility versus Price. Volatility Surface 3D is Raw Contracts and Smoothed Mesh for one ticker.

How Max Pain works on EZPZ

Search a ticker, leave Intraday Max Pain selected, then read Stock Price against O-Max Pain, P-Max Pain, and V-Max Pain. It is not a score. Most people leave Strikes on 20 and Chart Mode on Diverging. If the three strikes disagree, scroll the three cards and compare Call Max Pain with Put Max Pain on the same strike. Open Conventional Max Pain when you want the end-of-day view, not this live session. Do not treat SPY as a default thesis.

How this differs from Ticker Explorer

Ticker Explorer is a one-symbol dashboard. O-Max-Pain, V-Max-Pain, and P-Max-Pain sit there as one row under TriMetric Max Pain, next to quote, GEX charts, and unusual activity. This page is the dedicated three-chart view. There is no Stock Data card and no unusual activity table. Use Ticker Explorer when you want those three strikes beside everything else for the same ticker. Use this page when you want O-Max Pain, Open Interest, then P-Max Pain, Premium Weighted, then V-Max Pain, Volume. Use Put to Call Ratio when you want Traded PCR through the session. Use Gamma Exposure when you want Call Wall and Put Wall. Use GEX and DEX when you want Gamma Flip. Use Spot Gamma and Delta when you want ($) Open Interest versus ($) Volume. Use Expected Move when you want DEM versus VEM by expiration. Use Market Maker Exposure when you want SPX Flip Level. Use Market Cross Flow when you want SPY, SPXW, and QQQ side by side. Use Greeks Heatmap when you want Gravity Magnet Score. Use Option Depth Flow when you want strike by time. Use GEX Heatmap when you want pinning versus volatility cells. Use Largest Premium By Tickers when you still need a name from Bullish Flow or Bearish Flow. Use Index Trader when you want traffic lights. Use Top 20 Optionable when you want Vol. * Price rank. Use Market Wave when you want Current Day Net Call Premium versus Net Put Premium. Use Net Flow Graph when you want Filter ticker plus Cumulative Volume Delta. Use Historical Net Premium when you want the 15D table. Use 0DTE Graph when you want same-day premium. Use Weekly-DTE Graph when you want Friday. Use 7-DTE Graph when you want the next 7 days. Use Supply and Demand X-ray when you want Price, Supply, and Demand. Use Money Sentiment when you want Bought Ratio and Net Sentiment. Use Net Premium Heatmap when you want the strike-by-expiration grid. Use Movers and Shakers Tide when you want the 18-name basket. Use Live Flow when you want the prints. Use Option Chain when you want the listed book.

Anatomy of the three max-pain charts

You do not need every pill on every session. Use the tabs if you want a map of the fields.

Toolbar

• Symbol / Go: Type a ticker. Placeholder is e.g. SPY. Go loads the name. Enter also loads it.
• Expiration: One listed date. The screenshot uses 2026-02-21, not a blended book.
• Strikes: How many strikes around last price. 20 starts selected. Choices are All, 10, 20, 30, and 40.
• Chart Mode: Side by Side or Diverging. Diverging starts selected.

Controls on this page

The bar under the ticker has Symbol, Expiration, Strikes, and Chart Mode. Use those controls to change the map. Do not treat them as a score.

• Intraday Max Pain / Conventional Max Pain: Two tabs. Intraday is the live session. Conventional is the end-of-day page.
• Symbol / Go: Load another name. Placeholder is e.g. SPY.
• Expiration: One listed date.
• Strikes: 20 starts selected. Options are All, 10, 20, 30, and 40.
• Chart Mode: Diverging starts selected. Side by Side is the other button.
• Zoom: A toggle on each chart card. Off until you turn it on.

How people actually use it