Kimbell Royalty Partners, LP (KRP) 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.
Kimbell Royalty Partners, LP (KRP) operates in the Energy sector, specifically the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production industry, with a market capitalization near $1.45B, listed on NYSE, employing roughly 23 people, carrying a beta of 0.28 to the broader market. Kimbell Royalty Partners, LP, together with its subsidiaries, acquires and owns mineral and royalty interests in oil and natural gas properties in the United States. Led by Robert Dean Ravnaas, public since 2017-02-03.
Snapshot as of May 14, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $15.30
- Max Pain Strike
- $15.00
- Total OI
- 12.1K
As of May 14, 2026, Kimbell Royalty Partners, LP (KRP) max pain sits at $15.00, which is essentially at the current spot price of $15.30 (2.0% away). Spot sits within 2% of the max-pain level for Kimbell Royalty Partners, LP, the band where dealer hedging activity around the high-OI strikes can meaningfully reinforce a closing-week pin. KRP is a low-priced underlying (spot $15.30), where $0.50 or finer strike spacing increases the number of viable pin candidates and dampens the dominant-strike effect. Total open interest across the listed chain is comparatively thin (12.1K contracts), so single-strike pinning is less reliable than it is for high-OI names. KRP is currently in positive dealer gamma ($481.0K), the regime that mechanically reinforces pinning by inducing dealers to buy weakness and sell strength near heavy-OI strikes. 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.
KRP Strategy Implications at the Current Max Pain Level
With spot 2.0% from the $15.00 max-pain level and Kimbell Royalty Partners, LP in a positive-gamma regime, where dealer hedging mechanically pulls spot toward heavy-OI strikes, 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 KRP max pain analysis questions
- What is the current KRP max pain strike?
- As of May 14, 2026, Kimbell Royalty Partners, LP (KRP) max pain sits at $15.00, which is 2.0% below the current spot price of $15.30. 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 2.0% distance, KRP sits inside the band where dealer hedging can mechanically pull spot toward max pain during the closing week of the expiration cycle.
- Does KRP pin to its max pain strike at expiration?
- KRP is currently in positive dealer gamma, the regime that mechanically reinforces pinning. Dealers hedging long-gamma books buy weakness and sell strength near high-OI strikes, which pulls spot toward those levels into expiration. Total open interest across KRP (12.1K 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 KRP 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 KRP 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. KRP put/call OI ratio is 0.51 - call-heavy, which biases the max-pain calculation toward strikes above current spot when the call OI concentrates there.