What is MA max pain this week?

MA max pain for the nearest expiration (2026-08-21) is $540.00. Total call open interest: 11,283. Total put open interest: 12,664.

What is max pain in options?

Max pain is the strike price where option holders (buyers of both puts and calls) would collectively lose the most money at expiration. It represents the point of maximum financial pain for option buyers, and theory suggests stock prices tend to gravitate toward max pain as expiration approaches.

Home Options MAMax Pain

MA

Mastercard IncorporatedClose $574.31EOD only

Max Pain

$540.00

Next expiry Aug 21, 2026

Expected Move

±$10.35

1.8% from close

Price Gap

-34.31

Distance to max pain

IV Rank

Middle-high premium

P/C OI

0.97

Balanced positioning

Consensus

4/4

Partial coverage

Published snapshot: Aug 18, 2026 close

End-of-day snapshot

This page reflects MA options positioning from the latest published market-close snapshot. Intraday price and contract changes are not displayed.

Published Snapshot

Aug 18, 2026 close

Max Pain — MA

Data as of market close Aug 18, 2026

Open Available Reports (4/4)

Nearest listed expiration 2026-08-21 shows max pain at $540.00 (34.31 below spot). Use this page to evaluate pin-risk zones, strike pressure, and open-interest concentration before selecting trade structure.

Max Pain Strike

$540.00

Nearest expiry

Expected Move

±$10.35

±1.8%

Days to Expiry

Calendar days

Total Call OI

11,283

Nearest expiry

Total Put OI

12,664

Nearest expiry

P/C OI Ratio

1.12

Put-heavy

Spot Price

$574.31

Published close

Consensus

Open report for full read

Max Pain by Expiration

Pain by Strike

Drill into expiration

Selected: 2026-08-21

Expiration	Max Pain Strike	Last Updated
2026-08-07	$565.00	8/7/2026, 11:20:51 PM
2026-08-14	$555.00	8/14/2026, 11:23:35 PM
2026-08-21NextUpdated	$540.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2026-08-28	$550.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2026-09-04	$555.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2026-09-11	$550.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2026-09-18	$530.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2026-09-25	$560.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2026-10-02	$540.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2026-10-16	$535.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2026-11-20	$535.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2026-12-18	$540.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2027-01-15	$540.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2027-03-19	$530.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM
2027-06-17	$540.00	8/18/2026, 11:21:33 PM

Selected expiration: 2026-08-21 at max pain $540.00.

MA pain by strike for 2026-08-21 expiration
Strike	Call Pain	Put Pain	Total Pain
250	0	291454750	291454750
260	0	278812750	278812750
270	0	266245750	266245750
280	0	253745750	253745750
290	0	241265750	241265750
300	2000	228803750	228805750
310	4000	216355750	216359750
320	6000	203922750	203928750
330	8000	191508750	191516750
335	9000	185309750	185318750
340	10000	179114750	179124750
345	11000	172983750	172994750
350	12000	166861750	166873750
355	13000	160744250	160757250
360	14000	154628750	154642750
365	15000	148513750	148528750
370	16000	142402750	142418750
375	17000	136319750	136336750
380	18000	130249750	130267750
385	19500	124189750	124209250

How to Read Max Pain

Compare pin-risk and strike-pressure across expirations from the latest published close.

What max pain measures

Max pain is the strike where option holders would collectively lose the most at expiration, based on open interest across the listed chain.

How traders use it

It is most useful as a possible pinning zone, especially when spot is already trading near a crowded strike into expiration.

What can break it

Strong directional flows, news, or fast spot moves can overwhelm any pinning tendency, so max pain should support a thesis rather than drive it alone.

The closer you are to expiration, the more useful this becomes as context and the less useful it is as a standalone prediction.