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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 · Wed, Aug 5$741+0.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.51±1.8% by Wed, Aug 5
Put/Call OI1.7238K puts / 22K calls
Call wall$767largest call OI
Put wall$733largest put OI
IV3014.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$184.1Mper 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

spot741700732764796828860$184M$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 · Wed, Aug 5

spot74170072673774776479112K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPY open contracts per strike for Wed, Aug 5.

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, Aug 5

spot7417007267377477647912K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Aug 5

spot70073276479682886031%10%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 15.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Aug 5

spot700726737747764791+$122.6M$122.6M
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 · Wed, Aug 5

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.67-0.437340.01970.40-0.43-0.34
0.65-0.437350.02030.41-0.44-0.35
0.63-0.437360.02090.42-0.44-0.37
0.61-0.447370.02150.42-0.44-0.39
0.59-0.447380.02210.43-0.45-0.41
0.57-0.447390.02260.43-0.44-0.44
0.55-0.447400.02310.44-0.44-0.46
0.52-0.437410.02350.44-0.44-0.48
0.50-0.437420.02390.44-0.43-0.51
0.47-0.427430.02420.44-0.43-0.53
0.45-0.417440.02440.43-0.42-0.56
0.42-0.407450.02450.43-0.41-0.58
0.40-0.397460.02450.42-0.40-0.61
0.37-0.377470.02440.42-0.38-0.64
0.29-0.327500.02340.38-0.33-0.72

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