STRASMORE/EXPLORE 2,170 QUERIES

The six lowest-payout candidate strikes, SPY July 17 2026 expiry

Answered against 22 years of US equities and 12 years of US options data and published with the query that produced it. This result is stored as of 2026-07-31, from What Is Max Pain in Options? The Real Math.

as of ranking 6×2read in context →
The six lowest-payout candidate strikes, SPY July 17 2026 expiry — 6 rows by 2 columns, computed from US exchange, SIP and OPRA data.
candidate_strikeholder_payout_usd_mm
$7461898.2
$7471940.2
$7451960
$7482071.2
$7442166.9
$7492272.8
Rows × columns
6 × 2
Computed
Completeness
No missing values
Source
US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
Licence
Strasmore terms · free, no signup
Formats
JSON · CSV · the SQL below

What each column holds

Column definitions for The six lowest-payout candidate strikes, SPY July 17 2026 expiry, derived from the stored result.
ColumnTypeRangeNotes
candidate_strike text 6 distinct values ($744, $745, $746…)
holder_payout_usd_mm number 1,898.2 to 2,272.8 US dollars

Computed from Strasmore's warehouse of US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data. Equity prices are delayed; options greeks and implied volatility are end-of-day. This result is stored, not recomputed on load — it is exactly the numbers that were returned on , and the query below is what returned them.

the exact SQL behind every number 
WITH chain AS (
    SELECT intDiv(toUInt32OrZero(substring(ticker, length(ticker) - 7, 8)), 1000) AS strike,
           substring(ticker, length(ticker) - 8, 1)                              AS opt_type,
           sum(toFloat64(volume))                                                AS contracts
    FROM global_markets.options_minute_aggs
    WHERE window_start >= toDateTime('2026-06-18 08:00:00')
      AND window_start <  toDateTime('2026-07-18 04:00:00')
      AND startsWith(ticker, 'O:SPY260717')
    GROUP BY strike, opt_type
),
candidates AS (
    SELECT DISTINCT strike AS settle FROM chain WHERE strike BETWEEN 730 AND 765
)
SELECT concat('$', toString(candidates.settle)) AS candidate_strike,
       round(sum(multiIf(chain.opt_type = 'C' AND chain.strike < candidates.settle,
                         chain.contracts * (candidates.settle - chain.strike),
                         chain.opt_type = 'P' AND chain.strike > candidates.settle,
                         chain.contracts * (chain.strike - candidates.settle),
                         0)) * 100 / 1e6, 1) AS holder_payout_usd_mm
FROM candidates CROSS JOIN chain
GROUP BY candidate_strike
ORDER BY holder_payout_usd_mm ASC
LIMIT 6

Run your own version of this

The same 22 years of US equities and 12 years of options data are queryable in SQL or plain English. A free account runs 100 queries a day and takes no card.

More from this analysisWhat Is Max Pain in Options? The Real Math
SPY contracts traded by strike, July 17 2026 expiry ranking 22×3 → Total payout to option holders at each candidate settlement price, SPY July 17 2026 table 36×2 → Minimising strike vs settlement close: SPY monthly expirations, Feb to Jul 2026 table 6×5 → Which tickers carry the most upcoming expirations: option roots by distinct expiration dates in the next six weeks ranking 20×3 → SPY's expiring June 18, 2026 series: contracts traded by strike, and each strike's distance from the closing price ranking 12×4 → The daily-expiration club: every root with an expiry on all 21 June 2026 sessions ranking 11×3 → See all 2,170 queries →