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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 · Thu, Aug 6$7,515+1.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$147±2.0% by Thu, Aug 6
Put/Call OI1.2334K puts / 28K calls
Call wall$8,000largest call OI
Put wall$7,500largest put OI
IV3014.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$451.4Mper 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

spot7515480054406080672073608000$7.4B$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 — 7515 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Thu, Aug 6

spot75154800642569257275749076254K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPX open contracts per strike for Thu, Aug 6.

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 · Thu, Aug 6

spot75154800642569257275749076253K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Thu, Aug 6

spot58006240668071207560800055%11%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 16.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Thu, Aug 6

spot662569257250745075207660+$346.6M$346.6M
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 · Thu, Aug 6

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.80-3.5872500.00123.27-3.60-0.20
0.78-3.7672700.00143.48-3.78-0.22
0.77-3.8072750.00143.52-3.82-0.23
0.74-4.0073000.00153.77-4.02-0.26
0.62-4.3973750.00194.39-4.40-0.38
0.53-4.3674200.00214.57-4.36-0.47
0.52-4.3474250.00214.58-4.34-0.48
0.51-4.3174300.00224.58-4.31-0.49
0.47-4.1874500.00224.57-4.18-0.53
0.43-4.0574650.00224.53-4.04-0.57
0.41-3.9474750.00224.47-3.93-0.59
0.40-3.8774800.00224.44-3.87-0.60
0.37-3.7474900.00224.37-3.73-0.63
0.35-3.5975000.00224.27-3.58-0.65
0.34-3.5175050.00224.22-3.50-0.66

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