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Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Jul 29, 2:17 AM ET

SPY max pain

Spot (delayed)$740.86
Max pain · Tue, Aug 4$741+0.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.62±1.7% by Tue, Aug 4
Put/Call OI2.0444K puts / 22K calls
Call wall$820largest call OI
Put wall$704largest put OI
IV3014.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$40.6Mper 1% move

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

spot741580634688742796850$526M$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 — 741 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Tue, Aug 4

spot74158070572973974976510K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPY 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

spot7415807057297397497654K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Tue, Aug 4

spot58063468874279685053%10%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 15.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Tue, Aug 4

spot600714731741751769+$21.6M$21.6M
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 · Tue, Aug 4

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.68-0.457340.02080.37-0.46-0.33
0.66-0.467350.02160.38-0.46-0.35
0.64-0.467360.02230.39-0.47-0.37
0.61-0.477370.02290.39-0.47-0.39
0.59-0.477380.02360.40-0.47-0.41
0.57-0.477390.02420.40-0.48-0.43
0.55-0.477400.02470.41-0.47-0.46
0.52-0.467410.02520.41-0.47-0.48
0.49-0.467420.02550.41-0.47-0.51
0.47-0.457430.02580.41-0.46-0.54
0.44-0.447440.02610.41-0.45-0.56
0.42-0.437450.02620.40-0.44-0.59
0.39-0.417460.02610.40-0.42-0.62
0.36-0.397470.02600.39-0.41-0.65
0.33-0.377480.02560.38-0.39-0.68

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