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

SPY max pain

Spot (delayed)$764.29
Max pain · Wed, Sep 23$757-1.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.61±1.6% by Wed, Sep 23
Put/Call OI1.578K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$760largest call OI
Put wall$725largest put OI
IV3012.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2.1Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $782

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

spot757690726762798834870$47M$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 — 757 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Wed, Sep 23

spot7576907327477587757872K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SPY open contracts per strike for Wed, Sep 23.

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, Sep 23

spot7576907327477587757871K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Wed, Sep 23

spot69072676279883487031%9%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 11.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Wed, Sep 23

spotflip 782690732747758775787+$17.9M$17.9M
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 · Wed, Sep 23

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.68-0.297570.02310.48-0.28-0.36
0.66-0.307580.02400.50-0.28-0.38
0.64-0.307590.02480.51-0.28-0.40
0.61-0.307600.02560.52-0.28-0.42
0.59-0.307610.02630.52-0.28-0.45
0.56-0.297620.02700.54-0.28-0.47
0.54-0.297630.02750.54-0.27-0.50
0.51-0.297640.02800.54-0.27-0.52
0.48-0.287650.02820.54-0.26-0.55
0.42-0.267670.02830.53-0.25-0.60
0.34-0.237700.02710.50-0.22-0.69
0.20-0.167750.02170.40-0.16-0.82
0.18-0.157760.02030.37-0.14-0.84
0.16-0.137770.01870.35-0.13-0.86
0.14-0.127780.01720.32-0.11-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 55 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