Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.backquant.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Max pain is the strike at which the largest dollar amount of options expires worthless. It’s the single number that summarizes “where do option writers (dealers + sellers) want price to be at expiry?”

​
The intuition

For each candidate strike, calculate the total dollar payout option buyers would receive if the underlying settled there at expiry. Max pain is the strike that minimises that total payout — the price where the most contracts expire worthless and writers keep the most premium. Dealers who sold those options have an interest in hedging price toward that strike as expiration approaches. Whether they actually have the muscle to drive price there is a separate question (usually no for liquid underlyings, sometimes yes for thin OPEX days near the strike), but the level itself is a meaningful magnet.

​
The endpoints

​
Quick: 0DTE max-pain

/v2/gex/max-pain?symbol=BTCUSDT&expiry=0dte — returns the max-pain strike for today’s expiry from the pre-computed 0DTE cache. Sub-millisecond response. 
{
  "expiry": "0dte",
  "max_pain": {
    "strike": 67500,
    "value": 12500000.0
  }
}
value is the total option-buyer payout at the max-pain strike, in USD.

​
Per-expiry table

/v2/gex/max-pain?symbol=BTCUSDT&expiry=all — the per-expiry max-pain table for every active expiration. Sorted by DTE. 
{
  "expiry": "all",
  "per_expiry": [
    { "expiry": "30APR26", "dte": 0, "max_pain": { "strike": 67500, "value": 5e7 } },
    { "expiry": "02MAY26", "dte": 2, "max_pain": { "strike": 67000, "value": 8e7 } },
    { "expiry": "30MAY26", "dte": 30, "max_pain": { "strike": 65000, "value": 4e8 } },
    ...
  ]
}
Cached for 30s — repeated calls are sub-millisecond.

​
Specific expiry with the full pain curve

/v2/gex/max-pain?symbol=BTCUSDT&expiry=30MAY26 — returns the max-pain strike for that expiry plus the full pain_curve (one entry per strike), so you can plot the pain function as a U-shape and visually see how steep the magnet is. 
{
  "expiry": "30MAY26",
  "dte": 30,
  "max_pain": { "strike": 65000, "value": 4e8 },
  "pain_curve": [
    { "strike": 60000, "pain": 7.2e8 },
    { "strike": 62500, "pain": 5.5e8 },
    { "strike": 65000, "pain": 4.0e8 },
    { "strike": 67500, "pain": 4.3e8 },
    { "strike": 70000, "pain": 5.1e8 },
    ...
  ]
}
A flat curve (similar pain values across many strikes) means weak magnet — dealers have no strong preference. A sharp U (one strike with much lower pain than its neighbours) means a strong magnet — that’s the strike to watch into expiry.

​
Where else max-pain shows up in v2

  • /v2/options/opex — every expiration in the horizon comes with its max_pain block under gamma.
  • /v2/options/expiry-summary — every row carries max_pain for that expiry.
  • /v2/gex/levels?include=max_pain — the 0DTE max-pain alongside the gamma walls.
All three share the same per-expiry max-pain cache (30s TTL) so the snapshot scan happens once per refresh cycle regardless of how many endpoints query it.

​
How traders use it

Day before OPEX: combine max-pain with GEX levels. When max_pain is between call_resistance and put_support, the levels reinforce each other and the pin is high-probability. OPEX day: the closer to expiry, the tighter the pin tends to get. Calculate the distance from spot to max_pain and the implied move; if the implied move is smaller than the distance, the chain is pricing in a successful pin. Cross-expiry: an upcoming monthly’s max_pain that’s far from spot is bullish/bearish positioning. The market is signalling where it expects to be at the next anchor. Avoid: treating max-pain as a forecast on illiquid expiries. Distant or thinly-traded expirations have noisy max-pain — the curve is flat, no real magnet exists.

What is GEX?

The other major source of expiry-day price magnets.

OPEX calendar

Anchor expirations have the strongest max-pain signal.

Probability density

The market’s full implied price distribution for each expiry.