What Is The Fear &Amp; Greed Index?
The Fear & Greed Index compresses the mood of the crypto market into a single number from 0 to 100. Near 0 the market is in extreme fear — panic selling, capitulation; near 100 it is in extreme greed — everyone is buying because they are afraid of missing out. The index is published daily by alternative.me and is weighted mainly towards Bitcoin, because Bitcoin sets the tone for the whole market.
The idea goes back to Warren Buffett’s line: “be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” Crowd emotion tends to overshoot reality, so the moments when the gauge pins to either end of the scale are often the moments when the market is about to turn.
How Is It Calculated?
According to alternative.me, the index blends several data sources with different weights:
- Volatility (25%) — current volatility and maximum drawdown compared with the 30- and 90-day averages; an unusual rise in volatility reads as fear.
- Market momentum and volume (25%) — unusually high buying volume in a rising market reads as greed.
- Social media (15%) — the volume and speed of engagement around crypto hashtags.
- Bitcoin dominance (10%) — money retreating into Bitcoin reads as fear; money flowing into altcoins reads as greed.
- Search trends (10%) — Google search volume for Bitcoin-related terms.
- Surveys (15%) — currently paused, with the weight redistributed.
How To Read The Gauge
The dial above splits the scale into five zones: 0–24 extreme fear, 25–44 fear, 45–55 neutral, 56–75 greed, 76–100 extreme greed. What matters is rarely a single day’s reading but the direction and the duration: a market that has sat in extreme greed for weeks is a very different animal from one that spiked there yesterday and fell back today. The 30-day chart above exists to answer exactly that question.
Historically the index fell below 10 in March 2020, when markets crashed at the start of the pandemic, and climbed above 90 in early 2021 at the peak of that bull run. In both cases the crowd was wrong at precisely the extreme.
Three Ways Traders Use It
- As a contrarian signal: prolonged extreme fear is a time to consider accumulating gradually; extreme greed is a time to take some profit or tighten risk — not to add leverage.
- As a filter on an existing strategy: many traders only take entries from their own system while sentiment is not at an extreme, to avoid buying an emotional top.
- As a discipline check: if you notice you want to buy exactly when the index is above 80, that is the moment to ask whether you are analysing or following the crowd.
Limitations
This is a measure of sentiment, not of value. It reflects what has already happened, so it lags; it is centred on Bitcoin, so it says little about any individual altcoin; and it has no fixed “buy” or “sell” threshold — a market can sit in greed for months during a genuine bull run. Treat it as one more layer of information next to your own analysis, never as a standalone signal.
How It Differs From CNN’S Fear &Amp; Greed Index
CNN publishes an index with the same name that measures US equities, built from seven very different inputs: the put/call ratio, the VIX volatility index, junk bond demand, S&P 500 momentum, market breadth, safe-haven demand and stock price strength. The two are not interchangeable; this page tracks the crypto version only.
Sentiment And Your Trading Costs
Extreme readings usually coincide with a surge in trading volume — and with it, a surge in the fees you pay. Whether the market is fearful or greedy, part of the fees you pay on a linked exchange still comes back to you as a rebate through Backcom.io. See the list of crypto exchanges with rebates for the rate on each one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Often Is The Index Updated?
The source recalculates it once a day, around 00:00 UTC. This page pulls fresh data every hour, so a new reading appears here at most an hour after it is published.
Does It Apply To Forex Or Stocks?
No. This index is specific to the crypto market. US equities have CNN’s index of the same name with a different methodology; forex has no widely recognised equivalent.
At What Value Should I Buy?
There is no fixed threshold. Prolonged extreme fear has historically coincided with market bottoms, but “often” is not “always” — in 2022 the index sat in fear for months while prices kept falling. Combine it with your own analysis and position sizing.
Why Does The Number Differ From Other Sites?
A few providers publish similar indexes with their own formulas (CoinMarketCap, for example). The number on this page comes directly from alternative.me — the most widely cited version, with the longest history, going back to 2018.
Can I See More Than 30 Days Of History?
This page keeps the latest 90 days and charts 30 for readability. If you need the full series for research, alternative.me publishes the complete history since 2018 as raw data.
