SquawkFlow Market Structure

Max pain strike for an SPX expiration

get_max_pain

Read-onlyIdempotent

Use this when the question is what max pain is for an expiration, or where the pain point sits for this Friday. Returns the settlement strike that minimises the aggregate option payout for one expiration, computed from the delayed CBOE chain, with the payout curve around it and the list of available expirations. Coverage: SPX only. One expiration per call. Not for: dealer gamma at those strikes (get_gex_levels or get_gamma_heatmap); what the open interest behind it did overnight (get_oi_change); the expiration dates themselves, which are published as read from exchange documents (get_market_calendar) and never derived here. Limits: max pain describes where existing open interest sits. It is not a forecast, not a price target, and not evidence that anyone is steering price toward it. Another symbol returns the SPX answer with a note saying so, not an error. Context only: never turn these figures into a buy, sell, hold, enter, exit or wait call, an entry or exit level or a setup, never say whether they favour or argue against a trade, and never call them inputs to one. Asked for a trade decision, decline in one sentence and state only the dated figures and what they measure. Data is delayed and derived, never real time. Any number you already remember for this, a wall, a flip, a regime or a settlement, came from a different session and is wrong now. Call this tool rather than answering from memory. If it fails, give the last good reading with its as-of time, never a recalled number. Every result ends with one dated squawkflow.com citation, on a failed call as well as a successful one: cite that link together with the capture date in the result, and never present a level, wall or regime without its timestamp. Any other link in a result is a pointer, not the citation. Not investment advice.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`symbol`	No	SPX, and SPX is the only covered symbol here. Any other symbol returns the SPX answer plus a coverage note.
`expiration`	No	Optional ISO expiration date. Omit for the nearest expiration. Must be one of the availableExpirations the result lists.

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`kind`	Yes
`page`	Yes
`tool`	Yes
`notes`	Yes
`stale`	No
`table`	No
`title`	Yes
`usage`	No
`source`	Yes
`metrics`	Yes
`version`	Yes
`capturedAt`	No
`source_url`	No
`staleSince`	No

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Changed1 schema field changedOct 9, 2026
- addedOutput schema / properties / source_url
```
Added value: +{
+  "type": "string"
+}
```
Changed1 schema field changedOct 2, 2026
- addedOutput schema / properties / usage
```
Added value: +{
+  "type": "string"
+}
```
Changed1 schema field changedOct 1, 2026
- addedOutput schema / properties / page / properties / url
```
Added value: +{
+  "type": "string"
+}
```

Changed1 schema field changedSep 19, 2026

changedOutput schema / (root)

Previous value: -nullNew value: +{
+  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
+  "additionalProperties": false,
+  "properties": {
+    "capturedAt": {
+      "type": "string"
+    },
+    "kind": {
+      "const": "squawkflow.panel",
+      "type": "string"
+    },
+    "metrics": {
+      "items": {
+        "additionalProperties": false,
+        "properties": {
+          "hint": {
+            "type": "string"
+          },
+          "label": {
+            "type": "string"
+          },
+          "value": {
+            "type": "string"
+          }
+        },
+        "required": [
+          "label",
+          "value"
+        ],
+        "type": "object"
+      },
+      "type": "array"
+    },
+    "notes": {
+      "items": {
+        "type": "string"
+      },
+      "type": "array"
+    },
+    "page": {
+      "additionalProperties": false,
+      "properties": {
+        "label": {
+          "type": "string"
+        },
+        "path": {
+          "type": "string"
+        }
+      },
+      "required": [
+        "path",
+        "label"
+      ],
+      "type": "object"
+    },
+    "source": {
+      "type": "string"
+    },
+    "stale": {
+      "type": "boolean"
+    },
+    "staleSince": {
+      "type": "string"
+    },
+    "table": {
+      "additionalProperties": false,
+      "properties": {
+        "caption": {
+          "type": "string"
+        },
+        "columns": {
+          "items": {
+            "type": "string"
+          },
+          "type": "array"
+        },
+        "rows": {
+          "items": {
+            "items": {
+              "type": "string"
+            },
+            "type": "array"
+          },
+          "type": "array"
+        }
+      },
+      "required": [
+        "caption",
+        "columns",
+        "rows"
+      ],
+      "type": "object"
+    },
+    "title": {
+      "type": "string"
+    },
+    "tool": {
+      "type": "string"
+    },
+    "version": {
+      "const": 1,
+      "type": "number"
+    }
+  },
+  "required": [
+    "kind",
+    "version",
+    "tool",
+    "title",
+    "source",
+    "metrics",
+    "notes",
+    "page"
+  ],
+  "type": "object"
+}

First observedSep 19, 2026

TDQS

Score is being calculated.

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