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Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Jul 29, 2:19 AM ET

SPX max pain

Spot (delayed)$7,429
Max pain · Fri, Jul 31$7,450+0.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$107.45±1.4% by Fri, Jul 31
Put/Call OI1.52628K puts / 413K calls
Call wall$8,400largest call OI
Put wall$6,175largest put OI
IV3014.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$6616.7Mper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Wed, Jul 29$7,470+0.6%today
Thu, Jul 30$7,500+1.0%1d
Fri, Jul 31$7,450+0.3%2d
Mon, Aug 3$7,480+0.7%5d
Tue, Aug 4$7,500+1.0%6d
Wed, Aug 5$7,500+1.0%7d
Thu, Aug 6$7,515+1.2%8d
Fri, Aug 7$7,490+0.8%9d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot7450400049805960694079208900$159.0B$0
■ put-side pain■ call-side painTotal payout option writers would owe at each settle price (both sides, all open interest, ×100 shares) — low settles hurt put writers, high settles hurt call writers. The minimum — 7450 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jul 31

spot745040006240677571507450780053K53K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPX open contracts per strike for Fri, Jul 31.

Open-interest change — building vs unwinding

Needs two observed snapshot days for this expiration — the comparison appears automatically once the next weekday snapshot lands. We diff real observations only; nothing is estimated.

Volume by strike · Fri, Jul 31

spot74504000624067757150745078008K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jul 31

spot58006420704076608280890082%13%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 20.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jul 31

spot680070507220730075007650+$1191.7M$1191.7M
Net dealer gamma per strike, in dollars per 1% move, assuming the standard convention (dealers long calls, short puts) — an assumption, not an observation. Above the amber flip level hedging tends to dampen moves; below it, to amplify them.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Jul 31

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.89-5.3572300.00111.26-5.37-0.11
0.87-6.0972500.00131.41-6.11-0.13
0.84-6.8772700.00151.57-6.89-0.16
0.83-7.2772800.00161.66-7.29-0.17
0.80-8.0873000.00181.82-8.10-0.20
0.71-9.9573500.00232.23-9.96-0.29
0.59-10.9874000.00282.51-10.99-0.41
0.44-10.3974500.00302.54-10.39-0.56
0.36-9.3374750.00302.42-9.32-0.64
0.28-7.7975000.00282.19-7.79-0.72
0.20-5.9375250.00251.85-5.92-0.80
0.13-3.9975500.00201.43-3.97-0.87
0.04-1.0976000.00090.59-1.07-0.96
0.02-0.5476200.00050.35-0.52-0.98
0.01-0.1976500.00020.16-0.16-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot40006675718574207575766534K0
Call open interest per strike, stacked across the checked expirations — each color is one expiry. Strikes are pruned to the liquid center of each chain.

Max pain history

History starts accruing now: first snapshot taken 2026-07-28. We chart only days we actually observed — check back as the record builds. The measured hit-rate across all tickers lives on the accuracy ledger.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot600500061756800747581501.1M1.1M
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 9.2M call contracts, 12.4M put contracts open.

Reading this honestly

Max pain is arithmetic, not prophecy: the settle price that would minimize what option writers pay out at expiration, computed from open interest alone. Prices sometimes gravitate toward heavy strikes into expiry — dealer hedging is a real flow — but the evidence that max pain predicts settlement better than chance is mixed, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Use it as a map of where positioning is stacked, next to the fundamentals and the earnings calendar, not as a target.

Data: Cboe delayed public feed (~15 minutes), refreshed here about every 15 minutes. Open interest itself updates once daily, before the open. Educational information, not investment advice.

Keep going: SPX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk