MAX
MediaAlpha, Inc.
stock NYSE

Consecutive Weeks Closing OVER ( + >0.50 ) Max Pain — 4
Last Run OVER: — 1 Week
Last Run AT/UNDER: — 8 Weeks
Longest Consecutive Weeks Closing OVER (>0.50) Max Pain — 5
Longest Consecutive Weeks Closing AT/UNDER (+/- <0.50) Max Pain — 14
[09/30/2026](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1wuke8y/max_pain_volume_and_oi_data_every_day_until_moass/)
[First Post (Posted in June, 2024)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1ddi3oq/heres_your_proof_and_all_it_cost_me_was_4_shares/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1)
IV30 Data (Free, Account Required) — [https://marketchameleon.com/Overview/GME/IV/](https://marketchameleon.com/Overview/GME/IV/)
Max Pain Data (Free, No Account Needed!) — [https://chartexchange.com/symbol/nyse-gme/optionchain/summary/](https://chartexchange.com/symbol/nyse-gme/optionchain/summary/)
Fidelity IV Data (Free, Account Required) — [https://researchtools.fidelity.com/ftgw/mloptions/goto/ivIndex?symbol=GME](https://researchtools.fidelity.com/ftgw/mloptions/goto/ivIndex?symbol=GME)
And finally, at someone's suggestion —
# WHAT IS IMPLIED VOLATILITY (IV)? —
(Taken from [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/iv.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/iv.asp) ) —
Dumbed down, IV is a forward-looking metric measuring how likely the market thinks the price is to change between now and when an options contract expires. The higher IV is, the higher premiums on contracts run. The more radically the price of a security swings over a short period of time, the higher IV pumps, driving options prices higher as well.
The longer the price trades relatively flat, the more IV will drop over time.
IV is just one of many variables (called 'greeks') used to price options contracts.
# WHAT IS HISTORICAL VOLATILITY (HV)? —
(Taken from [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/historicalvolatility.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/historicalvolatility.asp) ) —
Dumbed down, I'm not fully sure. Based on what I read, it's a historical metric derived from how the price in the past has moved away from the average price over a selected interval. But the short of it is that it determines how 'risky' the market thinks a stock (or an option I guess) is. The higher the historical volatility over a given period, the more 'risky' they think it is. The lower the HV over a period of time, the 'safer' a security (or option) is.
And if anyone wants to fill in some knowledge gaps or correct where these analyses are wrong, please feel free.
# WHAT IS 'MAX PAIN'? —
In this context, 'max pain' is the price at which the most options (both calls and puts) for a security will expire worthless. For some (or many), it is a long held belief that market manipulators will manipulate the price of a stock toward this number to fuck over people who buy options.
# ONE LAST THOUGHT —
If used to make any decision. which it absolutely should NOT be (obligatory #NFA disclaimer), this information should not be considered on its own, but as one point in a ridiculously complex and convoluted ocean of data points that I'm way too stupid to list out here. Mostly, this information is just to keep people abreast of the movement of one key variable options writers use to fuck us over on a weekly and quarterly basis if we DO choose to play options.

I love the product, and they have just recently added AI conversation to their platform. BTW- I have a 2450 day streak on Duo in Spanish, and my family has a MAX Subscription. In my view, their AI tool is too little, too late. Using the newer ChatGPT, I was able to create better, more dynamic AI chat in Spanish and my guess is that people who want to learn a language would prefer something low/no-cost over the Duo Sub cost.

Admittedly, I don't get this company and I don't think it's a long term hold.
It's supposed to be a learning company, and the mission is to "develop the best education in the world and make it universally available" except they don't optimize for "best education", they optimize for DAU.
Earlier in the year management pivoted to delay monetization to continually grow the DAU funnel, and move certain features from upper tier subscription (MAX) to lower (SUPER) and freemium, making the app "less annoying" for free users.
Management is effectively sacrificing over $50 million in foregone near-term bookings to keep users engaged. As a result, their 2026 guidance shows Adjusted EBITDA margins compressing down to approximately 25%, down from 29.5% they achieved in 2025.
There is high insider ownership though, and one of the founders is CEO (the second recently stepped down from CTO position although he's still active in the company).
The ROIC is high, although I imagine it'll show compression soon enough. I am not sure they have a moat. I think it's probably overvalued though.
Any bulls here that are buying? Tell me what you think of the company.
Also full write up here going deeper --> [https://thepursuitofcompounding.substack.com/p/the-two-front-war-decoding-duolingo](https://thepursuitofcompounding.substack.com/p/the-two-front-war-decoding-duolingo)

How is Donnie gonna brag about how great BA's 737 MAX is when a few years ago they were literally falling out of the sky and all had to be grounded causing major travel disruptions. Is he secretly trying to say short BA?

Consecutive Weeks Closing OVER ( + >0.50 ) Max Pain — 4
Last Run OVER: — 1 Week
Last Run AT/UNDER: — 8 Weeks
Longest Consecutive Weeks Closing OVER (>0.50) Max Pain — 5
Longest Consecutive Weeks Closing AT/UNDER (+/- <0.50) Max Pain — 14
[09/30/2026](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1wuke8y/max_pain_volume_and_oi_data_every_day_until_moass/)
[First Post (Posted in June, 2024)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1ddi3oq/heres_your_proof_and_all_it_cost_me_was_4_shares/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1)
IV30 Data (Free, Account Required) — [https://marketchameleon.com/Overview/GME/IV/](https://marketchameleon.com/Overview/GME/IV/)
Max Pain Data (Free, No Account Needed!) — [https://chartexchange.com/symbol/nyse-gme/optionchain/summary/](https://chartexchange.com/symbol/nyse-gme/optionchain/summary/)
Fidelity IV Data (Free, Account Required) — [https://researchtools.fidelity.com/ftgw/mloptions/goto/ivIndex?symbol=GME](https://researchtools.fidelity.com/ftgw/mloptions/goto/ivIndex?symbol=GME)
And finally, at someone's suggestion —
# WHAT IS IMPLIED VOLATILITY (IV)? —
(Taken from [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/iv.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/iv.asp) ) —
Dumbed down, IV is a forward-looking metric measuring how likely the market thinks the price is to change between now and when an options contract expires. The higher IV is, the higher premiums on contracts run. The more radically the price of a security swings over a short period of time, the higher IV pumps, driving options prices higher as well.
The longer the price trades relatively flat, the more IV will drop over time.
IV is just one of many variables (called 'greeks') used to price options contracts.
# WHAT IS HISTORICAL VOLATILITY (HV)? —
(Taken from [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/historicalvolatility.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/historicalvolatility.asp) ) —
Dumbed down, I'm not fully sure. Based on what I read, it's a historical metric derived from how the price in the past has moved away from the average price over a selected interval. But the short of it is that it determines how 'risky' the market thinks a stock (or an option I guess) is. The higher the historical volatility over a given period, the more 'risky' they think it is. The lower the HV over a period of time, the 'safer' a security (or option) is.
And if anyone wants to fill in some knowledge gaps or correct where these analyses are wrong, please feel free.
# WHAT IS 'MAX PAIN'? —
In this context, 'max pain' is the price at which the most options (both calls and puts) for a security will expire worthless. For some (or many), it is a long held belief that market manipulators will manipulate the price of a stock toward this number to fuck over people who buy options.
# ONE LAST THOUGHT —
If used to make any decision. which it absolutely should NOT be (obligatory #NFA disclaimer), this information should not be considered on its own, but as one point in a ridiculously complex and convoluted ocean of data points that I'm way too stupid to list out here. Mostly, this information is just to keep people abreast of the movement of one key variable options writers use to fuck us over on a weekly and quarterly basis if we DO choose to play options.

I love the product, and they have just recently added AI conversation to their platform. BTW- I have a 2450 day streak on Duo in Spanish, and my family has a MAX Subscription. In my view, their AI tool is too little, too late. Using the newer ChatGPT, I was able to create better, more dynamic AI chat in Spanish and my guess is that people who want to learn a language would prefer something low/no-cost over the Duo Sub cost.

Admittedly, I don't get this company and I don't think it's a long term hold.
It's supposed to be a learning company, and the mission is to "develop the best education in the world and make it universally available" except they don't optimize for "best education", they optimize for DAU.
Earlier in the year management pivoted to delay monetization to continually grow the DAU funnel, and move certain features from upper tier subscription (MAX) to lower (SUPER) and freemium, making the app "less annoying" for free users.
Management is effectively sacrificing over $50 million in foregone near-term bookings to keep users engaged. As a result, their 2026 guidance shows Adjusted EBITDA margins compressing down to approximately 25%, down from 29.5% they achieved in 2025.
There is high insider ownership though, and one of the founders is CEO (the second recently stepped down from CTO position although he's still active in the company).
The ROIC is high, although I imagine it'll show compression soon enough. I am not sure they have a moat. I think it's probably overvalued though.
Any bulls here that are buying? Tell me what you think of the company.
Also full write up here going deeper --> [https://thepursuitofcompounding.substack.com/p/the-two-front-war-decoding-duolingo](https://thepursuitofcompounding.substack.com/p/the-two-front-war-decoding-duolingo)

How is Donnie gonna brag about how great BA's 737 MAX is when a few years ago they were literally falling out of the sky and all had to be grounded causing major travel disruptions. Is he secretly trying to say short BA?

I think the word risk is used interchangeably with budget per trade. Not the same for me. on a swing trade, I can take 1.5% of the account size then divide that number by 25%, that will be my budget for that particular trade. 25% represents the loss I can take on that trade.The MAX risk I like to take is 1.5% of the account size. As that number is what I am comfortable with. if I lose 1.5% of the account size then so be it. I xan live to trade another day. Any more than that I'm uncomfortable.

Consecutive Weeks Closing OVER ( + >0.50 ) Max Pain — 4
Last Run OVER: — 1 Week
Last Run AT/UNDER: — 8 Weeks
Longest Consecutive Weeks Closing OVER (>0.50) Max Pain — 5
Longest Consecutive Weeks Closing AT/UNDER (+/- <0.50) Max Pain — 14
[09/29/2026](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1wtrjui/max_pain_volume_and_oi_data_every_day_until_moass/)
[First Post (Posted in June, 2024)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1ddi3oq/heres_your_proof_and_all_it_cost_me_was_4_shares/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1)
IV30 Data (Free, Account Required) — [https://marketchameleon.com/Overview/GME/IV/](https://marketchameleon.com/Overview/GME/IV/)
Max Pain Data (Free, No Account Needed!) — [https://chartexchange.com/symbol/nyse-gme/optionchain/summary/](https://chartexchange.com/symbol/nyse-gme/optionchain/summary/)
Fidelity IV Data (Free, Account Required) — [https://researchtools.fidelity.com/ftgw/mloptions/goto/ivIndex?symbol=GME](https://researchtools.fidelity.com/ftgw/mloptions/goto/ivIndex?symbol=GME)
And finally, at someone's suggestion —
# WHAT IS IMPLIED VOLATILITY (IV)? —
(Taken from [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/iv.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/iv.asp) ) —
Dumbed down, IV is a forward-looking metric measuring how likely the market thinks the price is to change between now and when an options contract expires. The higher IV is, the higher premiums on contracts run. The more radically the price of a security swings over a short period of time, the higher IV pumps, driving options prices higher as well.
The longer the price trades relatively flat, the more IV will drop over time.
IV is just one of many variables (called 'greeks') used to price options contracts.
# WHAT IS HISTORICAL VOLATILITY (HV)? —
(Taken from [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/historicalvolatility.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/historicalvolatility.asp) ) —
Dumbed down, I'm not fully sure. Based on what I read, it's a historical metric derived from how the price in the past has moved away from the average price over a selected interval. But the short of it is that it determines how 'risky' the market thinks a stock (or an option I guess) is. The higher the historical volatility over a given period, the more 'risky' they think it is. The lower the HV over a period of time, the 'safer' a security (or option) is.
And if anyone wants to fill in some knowledge gaps or correct where these analyses are wrong, please feel free.
# WHAT IS 'MAX PAIN'? —
In this context, 'max pain' is the price at which the most options (both calls and puts) for a security will expire worthless. For some (or many), it is a long held belief that market manipulators will manipulate the price of a stock toward this number to fuck over people who buy options.
# ONE LAST THOUGHT —
If used to make any decision. which it absolutely should NOT be (obligatory #NFA disclaimer), this information should not be considered on its own, but as one point in a ridiculously complex and convoluted ocean of data points that I'm way too stupid to list out here. Mostly, this information is just to keep people abreast of the movement of one key variable options writers use to fuck us over on a weekly and quarterly basis if we DO choose to play options.

MU so be up 3% tomorrow MAX then tank 6+% on Friday