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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 · Tue, Aug 4$7,500+1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$129.15±1.7% by Tue, Aug 4
Put/Call OI2.3041K puts / 18K calls
Call wall$8,000largest call OI
Put wall$7,250largest put OI
IV3014.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1414.6Mper 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

spot7500400048005600640072008000$11.5B$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 — 7500 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Tue, Aug 4

spot75004000680072757350746075353K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPX open contracts per strike for Tue, Aug 4.

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 · Tue, Aug 4

spot75004000680072757350746075351K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Tue, Aug 4

spot56006080656070407520800062%11%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 16.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Tue, Aug 4

spot680072707315744075057625+$193.1M$193.1M
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 · Tue, Aug 4

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.73-4.5773200.00183.35-4.58-0.27
0.68-4.8473500.00203.63-4.85-0.32
0.63-4.9973750.00223.82-5.00-0.37
0.58-5.0574000.00233.96-5.05-0.42
0.54-5.0374150.00244.01-5.03-0.46
0.53-5.0174200.00244.02-5.01-0.47
0.52-4.9874250.00244.02-4.98-0.48
0.51-4.9674300.00244.03-4.96-0.49
0.48-4.8874400.00254.03-4.88-0.52
0.46-4.7874500.00254.01-4.78-0.54
0.44-4.7274550.00253.99-4.72-0.56
0.43-4.6674600.00253.97-4.66-0.57
0.40-4.5274700.00253.92-4.51-0.60
0.39-4.4374750.00253.88-4.43-0.61
0.35-4.1674900.00253.75-4.15-0.65

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