Fear & Greed Index

Live Fear & Greed Index for five markets — US stocks (S&P 500), A-shares (CSI 300), Hong Kong (Hang Seng), gold (COMEX international gold) and crypto. Interactive gauge, 1-year history chart, component breakdown and full calculation methodology.

Market sentiment on a 0–100 scale across five markets — US, A-shares, Hong Kong, gold and crypto. Extreme fear often signals buying opportunities, while extreme greed warns of a possible correction.

Loading index data...

About the Fear & Greed Index

What is the Fear & Greed Index?

The Fear & Greed Index measures the dominant emotion driving a market — fear or greed — on a scale from 0 (Extreme Fear) to 100 (Extreme Greed). Excessive fear tends to push prices below fair value, while excessive greed pushes them above it. Many investors therefore treat extreme readings as contrarian signals.

This page covers five markets: US stocks (S&P 500), A-shares (CSI 300), Hong Kong (Hang Seng Index), gold (COMEX international gold) and crypto.

How each market's index is calculated

  • Crypto uses the official daily Fear & Greed Index
  • US stocks (S&P 500) — SPX + VIX 7-dimension price-sentiment model. Seven factors, each 0–100, averaged with equal weight. Only Momentum (price vs 125-day MA) and Volatility (real VIX vs its 50-day MA) use their real definitions; the remaining five (Strength, breadth, put/call, junk-bond, safe-haven) are proxies derived from the S&P 500 price series itself, because real breadth / options / bond-spread data is not freely accessible from our server. This is not a faithful replication of CNN's Fear & Greed Index — the UI always discloses which factors are proxies.

  • A-shares, Hong Kong, Gold — Price 3-factor. A transparent three-component model computed from daily OHLC:

    1. Momentum (40%) — 60-day rate of change (close / close[−60]) − 1, mapped to 0–100 via 50 + pct × 250 (clamped). This is a real trend measure, not a range position. (0–100)
    2. Volatility (30%) — 20-day realized volatility (annualized), scored by its percentile within the trailing year, inverted: the higher today's volatility ranks, the more fear it contributes. (0–100)
    3. Drawdown (30%) — the current drawdown from the 1-year high, scored by its percentile within the trailing year, inverted: a deeper-than-usual drawdown means more fear. (0–100)

    Final index: 0.4 × Momentum + 0.3 × Volatility + 0.3 × Drawdown.

    How to read the index

The five bands (Extreme Fear / Fear / Neutral / Greed / Extreme Greed) are calibrated to each market's own 1-year distribution (20th/40th/60th/80th percentiles), not fixed global thresholds — so a market that chronically scores high still shows a meaningful spread. The gauge, chart point colors and tooltips all use these per-market boundaries.

Remember that the index is a sentiment thermometer, not a prediction. Extreme readings can persist for weeks, so combine it with other analysis.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the five markets on this page?
The page shows separate indices for five markets: US stocks (S&P 500), A-shares (CSI 300), Hong Kong (Hang Seng Index), gold (COMEX international gold) and crypto. Crypto follows the standard daily Fear & Greed methodology; the other four use a transparent multi-factor daily-OHLC model.
How often is the index updated?
The crypto index is recalculated once per day. The other indices are computed from the latest daily close of each market and re-fetched at most every 30 minutes.
What value means "extreme fear" or "extreme greed"?
The five bands are calibrated per market to its own 1-year distribution (20th/40th/60th/80th percentiles) instead of fixed thresholds. The gauge needle, chart colors and tooltips all use the same per-market boundaries, so a market that chronically scores high still shows a meaningful spread.
How are the US, A-share, Hong Kong and gold indices calculated?
The US (S&P 500) uses the SPX + VIX 7-dimension price-sentiment model: seven factors averaged with equal weight, where five of them (strength, breadth, put/call, junk-bond, safe-haven) are transparent proxies derived from the S&P 500 price series. A-shares, Hong Kong and gold use a three-factor model: momentum (40%, 60-day rate of change mapped to 0–100 via 50 + pct × 250), volatility (30%, inverted 1-year percentile of 20-day realized volatility) and drawdown (30%, inverted 1-year percentile of the drawdown from the 1-year high).
Should I buy when the index shows extreme fear?
Historically, extreme fear has often coincided with market bottoms, but there is no guarantee. The index measures sentiment, not fundamentals. Use it as one input among many, and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
Does this index cover stocks, gold or crypto?
Yes. The page covers US stocks, A-shares, Hong Kong, gold and crypto. The US uses a seven-factor price-sentiment model; A-shares, Hong Kong and gold use a transparent three-factor model.
Has this index been empirically validated?
No. It is a transparent price-based heuristic. The classification bands and factor weights have not been tested for predictive power (no rolling out-of-sample backtests, no correlation with forward returns or VIX). Treat the numbers as a sentiment thermometer, not a forecast.