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SentimentUpdated daily after close · as of 2026-10-05

Fear & Greed Index: Market Sentiment, Rebuilt in the Open

Fear, 42/100. 4 of 8 components lean fear; stock price strength is the weakest at 6 and safe-haven demand the strongest at 89.

Sources, methodology & freshnessAll eight components computed from our own data: the ~5,500-symbol daily price database (TradeStation) for momentum, breadth, highs/lows, HYG/LQD and stocks-vs-bonds; Cboe for the VIX; the official CBOE daily stats page for the put/call ratio (2025+); Massive share counts for the 23 cash ETFs. · Recomputed after every US trading close as part of the daily pipeline.Data as of 2026-10-05 · Open ↓
Source
All eight components computed from our own data: the ~5,500-symbol daily price database (TradeStation) for momentum, breadth, highs/lows, HYG/LQD and stocks-vs-bonds; Cboe for the VIX; the official CBOE daily stats page for the put/call ratio (2025+); Massive share counts for the 23 cash ETFs.
Methodology
v3 (2026-09-25) added cash ETF flows as an eighth component; v2 (2026-08-16) made each component is an exact trailing-252-session mid-rank percentile (0 = max fear, 100 = max greed); net new highs are normalized by universe size and put/call expires after seven stale calendar days. The index equally averages available components: six before 2017, seven until the CBOE feed accumulated a full lookback in January 2026, eight since. Zones at 25/45/55/75; forward returns use overlapping 21/63-session windows.
Updates
Recomputed after every US trading close as part of the daily pipeline.Data as of 2026-10-05
Maintained & reviewed by Yuriy Matso — methodology shown on the page.
Fear & Greed index2026-10-05 · close
Fear

fear for 6 sessions · 4/8 components lean fear

extreme fearfearneutralgreedextreme greed25455575
A week ago
44▼ 1 to today
Fear
A month ago
51▼ 8 to today
Neutral
01

The eight components, scored

The composite hides its own disagreements — this breakdown doesn't. Each input is scored 0–100 against its trailing year. Agreement tells you whether the headline is broad; the highest- and lowest-scoring inputs identify what is pulling the dial.

Agreement
4/8 fear
3 extreme
Highest score
89
Safe-haven demand
Lowest score
6
Stock price strength

Basket audit · 3.0 · 2026-09-25: v3 added an eighth family, cash ETF flows. Across the 21 component pairs scored since 2017 (put/call excluded for its short history), average absolute score correlation is 0.33 and the highest is 0.68 (momentum and cash ETF flows), related by design but not duplicate votes. The v2 audit corrected the percentile to exactly 252 sessions with mid-ranked ties, normalized net new highs by universe size, and added a seven-calendar-day put/call staleness gate.

02

The index since 2012

Fifteen years of the dial, with SPY above it and the zones shaded behind the line. Fear spikes are sharp and cluster inside selloffs; greed tends to plateau. The faint daily trace shows the latest move, while the 21-session average separates a new extreme from an entrenched one.

Daily
42
Fear
21-session avg
39
Fear
Daily vs trend
+3
near its 21-session average
Range:
EXTREME FEARFEARNEUTRALGREEDEXTREME GREED025455575100202420252026SPY (top pane, log)77542
Daily reading21-session average
Fear & Greed Index (2012-06-28 → 2026-10-05): daily readings (faint) with the 21-session average, zone bands at 25/45/55/75, and SPY in the top pane. Equal-weight average of exact trailing-252-session mid-rank component scores; six components before cash ETF flows joined in 2017, seven until the put/call feed accumulated a full scoring window in January 2026, eight since.
03

What happened next — SPY after each zone

The test other dials don't publish, rerun under the v3 method. The pattern shows a clear contrarian gradient: the fearful zones preceded the best average outcomes, while Extreme Greed preceded the weakest. Extreme Fear produced roughly 1.7× baseline three-month returns. Neutral and Greed are effectively tied, so this is not a perfectly monotonic staircase. It is a base rate over overlapping windows, mostly earned inside crashes that eventually turned; it is context, not a trigger.

What today's zone has meant historically

Fear has historically improved the forward-return base rate

After Fear readings, average SPY returns were positive at both measured horizons. The honest contrarian read is stronger-than-normal expected upside—not a standalone entry signal. These are overlapping historical observations, not independent trades.

Next 21 sessions
+1.13% · 67% win
+0.02pp vs baseline
Next 63 sessions
+3.46% · 78% win
+0.19pp vs baseline
ZoneDaysShareNext 21 sessionsNext 63 sessions
Extreme Fear54215%+2.07% · 70% win+5.45% · 80% win
FearToday87324%+1.13% · 67% win+3.46% · 78% win
Neutral61617%+0.95% · 67% win+2.86% · 76% win
Greed1,18033%+0.95% · 70% win+2.73% · 77% win
Extreme Greed37610%+0.49% · 63% win+2.04% · 72% win
All days (baseline)3,587100%+1.11% · 68% win+3.27% · 77% win

Average SPY price return and share of positive outcomes from every day in each zone, 2012+. Adjacent days overlap almost entirely, so effective sample sizes are far smaller than the day counts. Dividends excluded.

04

What this gauge cannot tell you

  • It is not CNN's number. Same concept, different data and scaling: ours reads against our own universe with published methodology, and the two will disagree by a few points routinely.
  • Two inputs have short histories. The put/call feed starts in 2025 and scores from January 2026; cash ETF flows score from 2017. Earlier history averages the six components available, so the zone study is dominated by the six- and seven-component eras.
  • It is a mood ring. The outcome table is an honest base rate and does not amount to a strategy. For positioning gauges with edge tests of their own, see the Put/Call Ratio, Commitment of Traders and the Tape Tracker.

How Fear & Greed Index Works

  1. 1
    Measure eight sentiment components
    Market momentum (SPY vs its 125-day average), stock price strength (net 52-week highs minus lows as a share of our common-stock universe), volume breadth (the 10-day share of volume flowing into advancing stocks), the CBOE total put/call ratio, the VIX against its 50-day average, credit appetite (high-yield vs investment-grade, HYG/LQD), safe-haven demand (stocks vs Treasuries over 20 sessions), and flows into cash ETFs (the 13-week net flow into T-bill and ultra-short ETFs, inverted so a rush into cash reads as fear). Every one is a series our pipeline already computes for its own tool page.
  2. 2
    Score each 0–100 against its own trailing year
    Each raw component becomes an exact trailing-252-session mid-rank percentile, oriented so 0 is maximum fear and 100 maximum greed. Mid-ranking puts a flat series at 50 instead of maximum fear, while percentile scoring prevents any component's scale from dominating.
  3. 3
    Average into one number, with zones
    The index is the equal-weight average of available components. Zones use the familiar cutoffs: below 25 Extreme Fear, 25–45 Fear, 45–55 Neutral, 55–75 Greed, above 75 Extreme Greed.
  4. 4
    Read it against the outcome table
    The page ships what other fear/greed dials leave out: SPY's average forward returns from every zone since 2012, rerun under the v3 method. The gradient is contrarian: fearful zones preceded the best returns and Extreme Greed the weakest, while Neutral and Greed were effectively tied.

Who Uses Fear & Greed Index

Contrarian investors
The classic use: extreme fear has historically been an opportunity marker. It has been a poor warning. Our zone table quantifies it with the average three-month return and win rate after every Extreme Fear day, beside the all-days baseline.
Swing traders
A one-number read on whether sentiment is stretched before adding risk. The week-ago and month-ago values show how fast the mood is swinging — regime changes matter more than levels.
Skeptics of black boxes
Every component links to its own full tool page on this site, the normalization is stated, and the history is downloadable. If you distrust sentiment dials, this one can be audited.
AI and research assistants
A dated, citable current reading with methodology and base rates in plain language — built to be quoted with its as-of date.

Pro Tips

01
The zones are base rates, not triggers
Extreme Fear preceding above-baseline returns is an average across hundreds of overlapping days, mostly clustered in selloffs that eventually mean-reverted. It says nothing about the next week — the win rates and the overlap caveat are printed for a reason.
02
Watch the swing as well as the level
A jump from Fear to Greed inside a week (like early August 2026, 43 → 64) tells you more about the tape than either endpoint. The week-ago and month-ago deltas are on the card.
03
Check which components disagree
The composite hides its own dispersion. When most components read greed and put/call reads fear — hedging into a rally — that split is often the story. The component table shows each score and its raw value.
04
Compare against CNN's dial
The seven CNN sentiment families plus one of ours (cash ETF flows), with different plumbing: our components come from our own universe and use trailing-percentile scoring, while our credit component is the tradable HYG/LQD ratio and CNN's is a proprietary bond-index spread. Levels will differ; the component table explains why ours reads what it reads.

Common Issues & Solutions

Why does the reading differ from CNN's Fear & Greed Index?▾
Different data and normalization. Ours uses the seven analogous families plus cash ETF flows, exact trailing-252-session mid-rank percentiles, universe-adjusted net new highs and a tradable HYG/LQD credit proxy. The number is independently calculated and will not match exactly; the point of this page is that every input is visible.
Why does the put/call component only join the score in 2026?▾
Our official CBOE daily-statistics history begins in January 2025, and percentile scoring requires a full 252-session lookback. The put/call score therefore joins in January 2026; earlier dates average the components available. A seven-calendar-day staleness gate removes it if the feed stops updating.
Is this predictive?▾
It is a sentiment gauge with honest base rates attached. The forward-return table shows a clear contrarian gradient since 2012—fearful zones did best and Extreme Greed weakest—but Neutral and Greed are effectively tied. The windows overlap heavily and fear clusters in crashes, so treat the zones as context, not entries.
Why trailing percentiles instead of fixed bounds?▾
Sentiment series drift across eras (the VIX's teens today are not 2012's teens). An exact trailing-252-session percentile keeps each component relative to its recent regime; mid-ranking ties prevents an unchanged series from being forced to either extreme.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the fear and greed index today?▾
The current reading, zone, and all eight component scores are at the top of this page, updated after every US trading close with the as-of date printed. The index runs 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed).
How is the fear and greed index calculated?▾
Eight components — SPY momentum, universe-adjusted net new highs, up-volume share, put/call ratio, VIX vs trend, HYG/LQD credit appetite, stocks-vs-bonds performance and flows into cash ETFs — are each scored as an exact trailing-252-session mid-rank percentile from 0 (fear) to 100 (greed) and averaged equally. The full method and every current input are published on this site.
Is the fear and greed index a good buy signal?▾
As a standalone timing signal, no, but the base rates lean contrarian. The outcome table on this page shows Extreme Fear days followed by the strongest average three-month SPY returns and Extreme Greed by the weakest, each against the all-days baseline. Neutral and Greed are effectively tied, and the windows overlap heavily, so this is context, and it does not trigger a trade.
Is this the same as CNN's Fear & Greed Index?▾
No — it is our own independent gauge built on the same seven-component concept, with an eighth input of our own. CNN's inputs and scaling are not fully public; ours are, and each component links to its own live tool page here. The two usually land in the same zone.
What does Extreme Fear mean?▾
A composite reading below 25 — sentiment near the bottom of its trailing-year range across most components. Historically these days sat inside selloffs, and forward returns from them averaged well above baseline, which is the contrarian logic of the gauge.

Explore Other Tools

Put/Call Ratio
The options-sentiment component on its own, with percentile and contrarian bands
VIX Fear Index
The volatility component in full: level, percentile, term structure link
Volatility Premium
VIXEQ minus VIX — whether single-stock nerves or index-level fear is driving the options market
New Highs – New Lows
The strength component: 52-week extremes across our universe, daily since 2010
Credit Spreads
The junk-demand component's home: the HYG/LQD regime with credit context
Last updated: 2026-10-05