Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 12, 3:44 AM ET

SPY max pain

Spot (delayed)$764.29
Max pain · Thu, Sep 17$760-0.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.16±1.2% by Thu, Sep 17
Put/Call OI0.9126K puts / 29K calls
Call wall$775largest call OI
Put wall$745largest put OI
IV3012.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$127.9Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $771

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Mon, Sep 14$759-0.7%3d
Tue, Sep 15$760-0.6%4d
Wed, Sep 16$760-0.6%5d
Thu, Sep 17$760-0.6%6d
Fri, Sep 18$755-1.2%7d
Mon, Sep 21$755-1.2%10d
Tue, Sep 22$755-1.2%11d
Wed, Sep 23$757-1.0%12d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot760660696732768804840$203M$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 — 760 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spot7606607277457597707814K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPY open contracts per strike for Thu, Sep 17.

Open-interest change · 2026-09-102026-09-11

spot660727749761774791+2K2K
Net contracts opened (up, green) or closed (down, red) per strike since the previous snapshot — where the walls are building and where they’re unwinding. Biggest moves: 791 +2K · 840 +2K · 779 +1K · 729 +1K

Volume by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spot7606607277457597707818K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spot66069673276880484046%7%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 11.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Thu, Sep 17

spotflip 771660727745759770781+$33.9M$33.9M
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, Sep 17

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.75-0.367560.02400.32-0.36-0.26
0.72-0.377570.02540.33-0.38-0.28
0.70-0.387580.02690.34-0.39-0.30
0.68-0.397590.02840.35-0.39-0.33
0.65-0.397600.02980.36-0.40-0.35
0.62-0.407610.03120.37-0.40-0.38
0.59-0.407620.03240.38-0.41-0.41
0.53-0.407640.03460.39-0.40-0.48
0.49-0.397650.03540.39-0.40-0.51
0.46-0.387660.03590.39-0.39-0.55
0.42-0.367670.03610.38-0.37-0.59
0.38-0.357680.03590.38-0.36-0.63
0.34-0.337690.03520.36-0.34-0.67
0.31-0.317700.03420.35-0.32-0.71
0.27-0.287710.03270.33-0.29-0.74

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

spot67072674475877279912K0
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 — nearest expiry vs price

07-2808-0508-1308-2108-3109-08777.95728.34
— max pain (nearest expiry)- - delayed closeOne point per snapshot day since 2026-07-28; unobserved days are gaps, not guesses.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot50500615690750815531K531K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5.4M call contracts, 14.0M 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