What is Option Pain?

Before understanding “Options Max Pain Theory”, it is important to understand the meaning of “Options Pain”. It is seen that 90%+ options expire out of the money. Since most options buyers lose money in options trading, the price of the underlying stock somehow must be adjusted / manipulated to close in a way that benefits option writers at the time of options expiry.

The loss incurred by options buyers is also termed as “Options Pain” for our discussion.