Max Pain Divergence — IV-Normalized Distance from Max Pain

As of April 21, 2026 (end-of-day snapshot). Pages update daily after the market close.

Where spot has drifted farthest from max pain, normalized by the front-expiration implied move so the signal is comparable across tickers with very different volatility levels. |Z| above 1 is meaningful; above 2 is extreme. Positive Z = spot above max pain; negative Z = below. Treat this as a regime-level signal, not a single-trade trigger — persistent divergence can accompany negative-gamma regimes and elevated realized volatility, though the relationship is empirical rather than mechanical.

Top 50 by Divergence (σ)

The live divergence leaderboard loads after the page hydrates. Rows are ranked by the absolute value of the IV-normalized Z-score (spot minus max pain, normalized by the front-expiration implied move), with a minimum-OI liquidity floor.

Methodology

Sourced from daily EOD ORATS option_ticker_snapshots. Eligibility: total_oi ≥ 50,000, spot ≥ $5, front_dte 7–60. Z-score = (spot − max_pain) / (spot × atm_iv_30d × √(front_dte / 252)), which is the ratio of the raw spot-minus-max-pain gap to the front-expiration implied move. Ranked by |Z| descending. Updated daily after market close.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why normalize by implied volatility?

Raw "% distance from max pain" is meaningless across tickers: a 2% gap on TSLA is noise, a 2% gap on SPY is huge. Normalizing by the front-expiration implied move expresses the distance in standard-deviation units, which makes the comparison meaningful across the whole universe.

Is a large divergence bullish or bearish?

Neither directly. A large divergence means spot has moved a long way from where dealer-hedging-minimized P/L would land. It often accompanies trending moves and negative-gamma regimes where hedging amplifies direction. Some traders fade extreme divergence expecting mean reversion; others use it as a confirmation signal for the direction already in force. The screener surfaces the signal — the interpretation depends on the rest of your framework.

Does this work on ETFs?

Yes — ETFs including SPY, QQQ, HYG, and IWM appear alongside stocks. ETF routing is handled so you land on /etf/:ticker instead of /stocks/:ticker.

How is divergence different from gamma exposure?

GEX measures dealer gamma position (how hedging flows will behave if spot moves). Divergence measures how far spot has moved from the OI-minimizing strike. They are complementary: a negative-GEX regime with wide max-pain divergence is a much more volatile setup than either signal alone.