the strike price where the most options expire worthless.
Max Pain is the strike price where the most options expire worthless.
market makers hedge around it, so price has a gravity pull toward that strike into expiry.
it explains those weird pins where price just sits at a strike on Friday.
The desk watches this alongside the nine Pulse Score signals when reading a coin. See Methodology for how the score fuses its inputs.
put open interest divided by call open interest
Next explainera 0-100 momentum gauge
Explainer generated Sep 24, 2026 from the desk glossary. Not financial advice.