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Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Jul 29, 1:00 AM ET

SPY max pain

Spot (delayed)$740.86
Max pain · Wed, Jul 29$740-0.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.06±0.8% by Wed, Jul 29
Put/Call OI0.99142K puts / 143K calls
Call wall$748largest call OI
Put wall$735largest put OI
IV3014.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$236.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $749

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Wed, Jul 29$740-0.1%today
Thu, Jul 30$741+0.0%1d
Fri, Jul 31$743+0.3%2d
Mon, Aug 3$742+0.2%5d
Tue, Aug 4$741+0.0%6d
Wed, Aug 5$741+0.0%7d
Thu, Aug 6$741+0.0%8d
Fri, Aug 7$748+1.0%9d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot740680716752788824860$1.4B$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 — 740 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Wed, Jul 29

spot74068071973174175176215K15K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPY open contracts per strike for Wed, Jul 29.

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 · Wed, Jul 29

spot74068071973174175176265K65K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Jul 29

spot68071074077080083068%12%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 19.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Jul 29

spotflip 749680718729738747757+$265.7M$265.7M
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 · Wed, Jul 29

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.80-0.957340.03290.11-0.95-0.20
0.77-1.147350.03630.12-1.14-0.23
0.73-1.357360.03970.13-1.35-0.27
0.69-1.607370.04290.14-1.60-0.31
0.65-1.897380.04590.14-1.89-0.35
0.60-2.217390.04850.15-2.21-0.40
0.56-2.567400.05070.15-2.56-0.44
0.51-2.767410.05220.16-2.76-0.49
0.45-2.517420.05290.15-2.51-0.55
0.40-2.057430.05280.15-2.05-0.60
0.34-1.617440.05150.14-1.62-0.66
0.29-1.247450.04910.13-1.25-0.72
0.24-0.927460.04550.12-0.94-0.77
0.19-0.667470.04080.11-0.69-0.82
0.14-0.467480.03520.09-0.50-0.87

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

spot37568271973675277545K0
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

spot50520630700755825600K600K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5.7M call contracts, 11.5M 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: SPY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk