State Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF (KIE) Max Pain Analysis
Max pain is the strike price where aggregate option buyer payout is minimized at expiration. It represents the price at which option writers retain the most premium.
State Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF (KIE) operates in the Financial Services sector, specifically the Asset Management industry, with a market capitalization near $446.7M, listed on AMEX, carrying a beta of 0.63 to the broader market. The State Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of the S&P Insurance Select Industry Index (the "Index")Seeks to provide exposure to the insurance segment of the S&P TMI, which comprises the following sub-industries: Insurance Brokers, Life & Health Insurance, Multi-Line Insurance, Property & Casualty Insurance, and ReinsuranceSeeks to track a modified equal weighted index which provides the potential for unconcentrated industry exposure across large, mid and small cap stocksAllows investors to take strategic or tactical positions at a more targeted level than traditional sector based investing public since 2005-11-15.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $56.55
- Max Pain Strike
- $57.00
- Total OI
- 44.2K
As of May 15, 2026, State Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF (KIE) max pain sits at $57.00, which is essentially at the current spot price of $56.55 (0.8% away). Spot sits within 2% of the max-pain level for State Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF, the band where dealer hedging activity around the high-OI strikes can meaningfully reinforce a closing-week pin. KIE sits in the lower-price band (spot $56.55), where $0.50-$2.50 strike spacing makes pin-to-strike effects easy to spot but per-contract dollar gamma is smaller. Total open interest across the listed chain is comparatively thin (44.2K contracts), so single-strike pinning is less reliable than it is for high-OI names. KIE is currently in negative dealer gamma (-$5.4M), a regime that amplifies directional moves rather than damping them, weakening the pin-toward-max-pain bias. Max pain identifies the strike at which the aggregate dollar value of all outstanding options contracts would expire with the least total intrinsic value, a gravitational reference rather than a price target.
KIE Strategy Implications at the Current Max Pain Level
With spot effectively pinned the $57.00 max-pain level and State Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF in a negative-gamma regime, where dealer hedging amplifies directional moves and weakens any pin, strategy selection turns on cycle position and dealer positioning. Iron condors and credit spreads centered near the max-pain strike capture the typical end-of-cycle convergence when the regime supports pinning; ratio backspreads or directional debit structures fit names where catalyst flow is likely to overwhelm the hedging-driven pull. The gamma-exposure page shows the per-strike dealer book that determines whether hedging will reinforce or fight the pin.
Learn how max pain is reported and how to read the data →
Frequently asked KIE max pain analysis questions
- What is the current KIE max pain strike?
- As of May 15, 2026, State Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF (KIE) max pain sits at $57.00, which is 0.8% above the current spot price of $56.55. Max pain identifies the strike at which aggregate option-buyer payouts at expiration are minimized; it is a gravitational reference, not a price target. At a 0.8% distance, KIE sits inside the band where dealer hedging can mechanically pull spot toward max pain during the closing week of the expiration cycle.
- Does KIE pin to its max pain strike at expiration?
- KIE is currently in negative dealer gamma, a regime that amplifies directional moves rather than damping them. The pin-toward-max-pain bias weakens here because dealer hedging adds momentum rather than mean reversion. Total open interest across KIE (44.2K contracts) is one input to how plausible a clean pin is - heavier total OI concentrated at fewer strikes raises the probability; thin OI spread across many strikes lowers it. Pinning is strongest in heavily-traded names with large open-interest concentrations at high-OI strikes during the final week of an OPEX cycle. Whether KIE actually pins on a given expiration depends on the OI distribution, the dealer-gamma sign, and the absence of catalyst-driven moves that overwhelm hedging-driven flow.
- How is KIE max pain calculated?
- Max pain is computed by summing the dollar value of all in-the-money options at each candidate settlement strike across listed expirations, then selecting the strike that minimizes total intrinsic-value payout to option buyers. The calculation uses the full open-interest distribution and weighs both calls and puts. KIE put/call OI ratio is 6.95 - put-heavy, which biases the max-pain calculation toward strikes below current spot when the put OI concentrates there.