Option Chain Analyzer — Put-Call Ratio & Max Pain

Option chain analysis: PCR, max pain and open interest from your own data

An option chain lists every strike of an index or stock with its calls on one side and puts on the other: open interest (OI), change in OI, volume and prices. This option chain analyzer turns a chain you paste or upload into the numbers traders look for — the put-call ratio (PCR), the max pain strike, the strikes with the highest call and put open interest, where OI is being added — plus an open-interest chart and the payout curve behind max pain.

It does not fetch any market data. Exchanges publish option chains on their own websites and through brokers, and their terms restrict automated scraping, so you copy or download the chain yourself and paste it here. Simple tables (Strike, Call OI, Put OI…) and the exchange’s own layout with calls to the left of the strike and puts to the right both work, including Indian digit grouping and dashes for empty cells. The analysis runs entirely in your browser.

How to use the Option Chain Analyzer (PCR & Max Pain)

1. Download or copy an option chain for one expiry from your broker or the exchange (CSV or a copied table).
2. Paste it into the box with its header row, or use Load a CSV file.
3. Optionally enter the spot price to mark the at-the-money strike, and the lot size if OI is in contracts.
4. Read the max pain strike, PCR, highest call and put OI and the charts.
5. Scroll the strike table for per-strike PCR and payout, and copy the summary.

Option Chain Analyzer (PCR & Max Pain) features

How PCR and max pain are calculated

Put-call ratio = total put open interest ÷ total call open interest. In the sample chain, puts total 8,67,000 contracts and calls 9,57,500, a PCR of 0.91, and the max pain strike is 25,000 — right at the money. The same ratio is shown for the day’s change in OI and for volume when those columns exist.

Max pain: for each strike K taken as the expiry price, add up what option holders would receive — every call below K is worth K − strike, every put above K is worth strike − K, each multiplied by its open interest. The strike with the smallest total is the max pain point. Multiplying by the lot size (when OI is in contracts) turns the payout into money.

Max pain is a theory, not a prediction

The max pain idea says that because option writers (often large, hedged players) collect most when options expire worthless, prices tend to gravitate towards the max pain strike near expiry. Evidence for it is mixed: on many expiries the index finishes far from max pain, and the strike itself moves as open interest changes during the day. Treat it as one description of where open interest sits, not as a forecast.

Readings of PCR are equally loose. A PCR well above 1 shows more puts open than calls — read by some as heavy hedging or bearishness, by contrarians as a sign of excessive fear; well below 1 the opposite. The strikes with the highest call and put OI are often watched as resistance and support, alongside pivot points. To see what a particular strategy would make or lose at expiry, use the options profit calculator, and for fair value and Greeks the Black-Scholes calculator.