IRDM Max Pain
The strike where the most option value expires worthless — computed from IRDM’s full open-interest ladder across every listed expiry, alongside the open-interest walls either side of it and the put/call balance behind them.
Open interest and pricing as of the close on 2026-08-31. Recomputed every morning before the open.
IRDM is trading 16.5% above max pain. If price were pulled toward that level into expiration it would be a move down toward $40.
Max pain is an observation about where open interest sits, not a forecast. Price converges on it often enough to be worth knowing and diverges from it often enough that trading it alone is not an edge.
Max pain by expiration
The headline number pools every expiry. Individual expirations pin to different strikes, and the nearest one is usually the only one with enough open interest to matter this week.
| Expiration | Max pain | Call OI | Put OI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 18 | $45 | 3,611 | 651 |
| Oct 16 | $35 | 6,128 | 2,399 |
| Jan 15 | $45 | 4,204 | 2,394 |
| Apr 16 | $60 | 10 | 0 |
| Dec 17 | $45 | 141 | 149 |
| Jan 21 | $25 | 98 | 105 |
| Dec 15 | $25 | 536 | 1,422 |
Computed over 17 strikes carrying open interest. Strikes and expiries with no open contracts are excluded rather than shown empty.
IRDM max pain, explained
What is max pain?
For every listed strike, add up what all open IRDM calls and puts would pay out if the stock settled exactly there. Max pain is the strike where that total is smallest — the settlement price that hands option holders the least money, and option writers the most.
Does price actually gravitate to it?
Sometimes, and for a real mechanical reason: dealers who are short those contracts hedge continuously, and near expiration that hedging concentrates around the heaviest strikes. But max pain moves as open interest changes, and a genuine catalyst overwhelms it entirely. Treat it as a map of where positioning is dense, not a price target.
How is this different from the gamma walls?
The walls on this page are raw open-interest peaks — the heaviest strike above and below spot. Our gamma walls weight the same positioning by dealer gamma, which is a sharper read of where hedging pressure actually concentrates. Max pain is a third thing again: a payout minimum across the whole ladder, not a single heavy strike.
How current is it?
Open interest is published once a day by the OCC after the session settles, so every max-pain figure anywhere — ours included — describes yesterday’s positioning. We recompute each morning before the open.
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Educational, not investment advice. Options involve risk. Open interest is reported with a one-session lag by OCC, so these levels describe positioning as of the last settled session, not live intraday flow.