The fear and greed index scores market mood from 0 to 100. Learn what FGI means, how it's calculated for stocks and crypto and how traders read it.
Markets run on numbers, but they move on feelings. The fear and greed index tries to put a number on those feelings.
FGI stands for Fear and Greed Index, a sentiment gauge that scores investor mood from 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed). CNN publishes the well-known version for US stocks. Alternative.me runs the most-quoted crypto version, built around Bitcoin (BTC).
Here's how each one is built, what the scores mean and where the index falls short.
The index doesn't track price. It tracks how people behave around price: how hard they're buying, how jumpy the market is, where money is hiding and what everyone is searching for.
When fear runs the show, investors dump risky assets and retreat to cash or bonds. When greed takes over, they chase rallies, borrow to buy more and worry about missing the boat — known colloquially as FOMO (fear of missing out).
A reading deep in greed may mean prices have run ahead of themselves and a pullback could follow. A reading deep in fear may mean selling has gone further than the facts justify, which some investors treat as an opening.
That makes the index useful as an emotional anchor. When your gut says everyone's buying and you need to get in, a reading of 90 is a reminder that everyone else feels exactly the same way.
Both major versions boil several market signals down to one score. They measure different things because stocks and crypto leave different footprints.
Three terms come up a lot. Volatility is how sharply prices swing. Market momentum is the direction and strength of a trend. Social media sentiment is how loudly, and how positively, people talk about an asset online.
CNN's Fear & Greed Index gives seven indicators equal weight. Each is compared with its own recent norm, and the further it strays, the harder it pulls the score toward fear or greed. The index recalculates whenever new data arrives.
Indicator | What it measures | Reads as greed when… |
|---|---|---|
Market momentum | The S&P 500 against its 125-day average | The index trades well above that average |
Stock price strength | NYSE stocks hitting 52-week highs vs 52-week lows | Highs outnumber lows |
Stock price breadth | Trading volume in rising vs falling NYSE shares | Volume piles into rising stocks |
Put and call options | Hedges on falling prices (puts) against rising prices (calls) | Calls outnumber puts |
Market volatility | The VIX, Wall Street's ‘fear gauge’ | The VIX is low and falling |
Safe haven demand | Stock returns vs. Treasury bond returns over 20 trading days | Stocks beat bonds |
Junk bond demand | The extra yield investors demand to hold riskier corporate debt | That extra yield shrinks |
Alternative.me's Crypto Fear & Greed Index tracks bitcoin only and updates once a day. It draws on six weighted inputs, though surveys are currently paused, so five do the work.
Input | Weight | What it measures | How it reads |
|---|---|---|---|
Volatility | 25% | Bitcoin's swings and drawdowns vs their 30- and 90-day averages | Unusual spikes in volatility read as fear |
Momentum and volume | 25% | Trading volume and momentum vs 30- and 90-day averages | Heavy buying in a rising market reads as greed |
Social media | 15% | Posts and engagement around bitcoin hashtags on X | Unusually high engagement reads as greed |
Surveys (paused) | 15% | Weekly polls of crypto investors | Not in the live score |
Dominance | 10% | Bitcoin's share of the total crypto market | Rising share reads as fear; falling share reads as greed |
Search trends | 10% | Google search interest in bitcoin-related terms | Spikes in worried searches read as fear |
Dominance needs a word of explanation. When traders get nervous, they tend to sell smaller, riskier coins and move into BTC. Its share of the market climbs. When they feel bold, money spills back into altcoins and BTC’s share slips.
A score is a snapshot of crowd mood. Each zone tends to come with its own trading conditions.
Score | Zone | What the crowd is doing | What markets can look like |
|---|---|---|---|
0 to 24 | Extreme fear | Panic selling and a rush to cash | Volume spikes on capitulation days, then thins out. Prices can gap sharply on small orders. |
25 to 49 | Fear | Caution, with buyers on the sidelines | Lighter volume. Rallies fade quickly. |
Around 50 | Neutral | No strong lean either way | Prices drift, waiting on the next catalyst |
51 to 74 | Greed | Confidence, and dips get bought | Rising volume as new money arrives |
75 to 100 | Extreme greed | Euphoria and FOMO, often with borrowed money | Crowded trades. Corrections can be swift when the mood turns. |
The cut-offs aren't identical everywhere. CNN, for instance, treats roughly 45 to 55 as neutral.
Crypto moods swing harder and faster than stock market moods. Bitcoin trades around the clock, its daily price swings dwarf the S&P 500's and retail traders make up a bigger slice of the market. Sentiment follows suit.
In February 2025, the crypto index sank to 10 as BTC fell below $86,000, about 22% under its January peak. It was the weakest reading since June 2022, when the Terra collapse and a run of lender failures shook the market.
The stock index moves more slowly, but it isn't immune. During the April 2025 tariff sell-off, CNN's gauge fell to around 3, about as close to zero as it gets.
The two may move together frequently. When Wall Street sheds risk, crypto rarely escapes. CNN's page plots the index over time; laying it next to an S&P 500 chart shows extremes bunching near major turning points. Not every extreme marks a turn, though.
The index is built for contrarians. Warren Buffett put the philosophy best in his 1986 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders: "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful."
He acted on it in October 2008, at the depths of the financial crisis, with a New York Times op-ed titled "Buy American. I Am."
In practice, an extreme reading is a cue to look harder. Markets can stay euphoric or terrified for weeks. Some traders watch for divergence instead: prices hitting new highs while the index weakens can hint that the rally is running out of believers.
Sentiment is contagious. FOMO pushes people to buy at the top. FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) pushes them to sell at the bottom. A few questions can help traders separate a plan from a panic.
When the index reads extreme greed, traders may ask themselves:
When the index reads extreme fear:
The fear and greed index describes the past. Every input, from price momentum to volatility, is built on data that has already happened, which makes it a lagging indicator.
April 2025 shows the gap. On April 9, the S&P 500 jumped 9.5%, its best day since 2008, after the White House paused most new tariffs. CNN's index still read extreme fear the next day.
A few other blind spots to keep in mind:
Note: Outcomes can vary. No reading guarantees what happens next. Always treat the index as one input among many, never as financial advice. |
FGI stands for Fear and Greed Index. It's a sentiment gauge that scores investor mood from 0, extreme fear, to 100, extreme greed.
It's a daily sentiment score for bitcoin published by Alternative.me. It blends volatility, trading volume, social media activity, bitcoin's market share and Google search trends.
It depends on the version. CNN averages seven equally weighted stock market signals, including the VIX and S&P 500 momentum. The crypto index weights its inputs, with volatility and momentum counting for half the score.
Both indexes change constantly. CNN's stock gauge updates as new market data arrives, and Alternative.me posts a new crypto reading each day. On October 12, 2026, the crypto index read 69, or greed.
It accurately reflects the data it's built on, but it can't predict prices. It's a lagging indicator, and markets can stay at an extreme long after the index flags it.
Once a day. CNN's stock market index updates more often, recalculating whenever fresh data comes in during the trading day.
Lagging. Its inputs, such as price momentum, volatility and trading volume, all describe what has already happened.
Not necessarily. Extreme fear has preceded some notable rebounds, but readings can stay low while prices keep falling. The index is one input, not a buy or sell signal.
CNN's index tracks US stocks using market data such as options activity and bond demand. The crypto index tracks bitcoin and adds online signals such as social media buzz and search trends.
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