Early yesterday there was a lot of call activity (I mentioned that here) which upon reflection, I thought was people closing open positions (with disgust as the market was tanking). I would not be surprised that if the market goes up even a little tomorrow a lot of in the money puts will be cashed in as well. I just think the the max pain value during expiry week is not that meaningful, last week counted and max pain was between $36.6 and $37, this week , they try and kill as many of the puts and the calls they can, since there were quite a lot of puts around $36 and $37, it would not surprise me to see them ramp it up to make these worthless. And yes, a lot of put buyers do wait till the last minute in an irrational hope (swim to shore meoww...someone mentioned that here last night) that somehow these worthless instruments will be cashable.
