As of: 2026-08-22
Each bar shows the individual value of an indicator (0--100). The percentage on the right indicates its weight in the overall score.
Red values signal fear, green values signal greed. The overall score is the weighted average of all indicators.
The chart shows the Fear & Greed Index over time. The colored zones mark the sentiment areas: Red = Fear, Yellow = Neutral, Green = Greed.
Navigation: Select the time period using the buttons (1M to Max). Hover over the chart to see the score on a specific day.
The calculation runs on every trading day, using daily closing prices together with spot data. Six indicators are weighted into a single score, 0 marking Extreme Fear and 100 marking Extreme Greed. Gold is held rather than consumed, which makes the reading unusually responsive to geopolitical events, to interest rate decisions and to central bank purchasing.
Data sources: daily closing prices, spot prices, EUR/USD exchange rates. Updated daily on trading days. This index is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
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Getting something out of what you see and read?
We put our whole heart into keeping preciousmetalprices.com fast, tidy and free — no paywalls, no clutter, just facts and live prices you can trust. If it’s any help to you, the nicest way to say thanks is to pass it along. Every share helps another investor find us and keeps the whole project ticking over. 💛
How the Index Is Calculated
Six separate market signals are collected each day and reduced to one figure. Before they can be combined, each is rescaled onto a common 0-to-100 range; each then receives a fixed weight reflecting how much that particular signal matters in the gold market.
Calculation Formula
Score = ∑ (Indicatori × Weighti)
Each Indicatori ranges between 0 and 100, and the sum of all weights equals 1.0.
The 6 Indicators and Their Weights
Momentum
25 %Compares the current price with the 50-day moving average (SMA50). If the price is significantly above the average, greed prevails. If below, fear dominates. A distance of more than 10% from the SMA50 indicates an exaggeration.
Volatility
25 %Compares short-term volatility (10 days) with long-term volatility (60 days). A sharp increase in short-term volatility signals nervousness and fear. Stable volatility indicates composure.
Ratio Signal
15 %Analyzes the gold/silver ratio and other metal ratios. A rising ratio (gold gains relative to silver) signals a flight to safety = fear. A falling ratio shows risk appetite = greed.
Acceleration
15 %Measures whether the current price trend is accelerating or decelerating. Increasing upward acceleration signals greed -- more and more buyers are jumping in. A slowdown may indicate a trend reversal.
ATH Distance
10 %Measures the distance to the all-time high. The closer the price is to the ATH, the greedier the sentiment. A distance of over 20% indicates resignation and fear.
USD Strength
10 %Tracks the EUR/USD trend over 20 trading days. A weakening dollar is positive for precious metals (greed). A strengthening dollar depresses prices (fear).
Note: For copper, the ratio signal is omitted (weight 0%) since no meaningful reference ratio exists. The remaining indicators are weighted more heavily accordingly.
What the Values Mean
The five bands correspond to phases any long-term gold holder will recognise. One asymmetry is characteristic of this metal: its fear phases are typically briefer than those of the industrial metals, since the uncertainty that drives investors out of everything else drives them into gold.
Extreme Fear
Capitulation, and frequently for mechanical reasons rather than emotional ones. In a liquidity squeeze such as March 2020, institutions sell gold because it is the asset they can sell -- cash is needed to meet margin calls in positions elsewhere. Readings at this depth have historically marked the end of corrections rather than the beginning of them.
Fear
Buying stops and the market waits. Higher real yields or a strengthening dollar are the usual culprits, since both increase the cost of holding an asset that produces no income. Contrarian buyers characteristically begin accumulating quietly at this stage.
Neutral
Consolidation, with neither anxiety nor enthusiasm in control. The market is waiting to be given a direction -- by the next rate decision, the next inflation release, or the next development in a geopolitical dispute.
Greed
Higher prices attract further buying, which produces higher prices again. Central bank purchasing, geopolitical crisis or inflation anxiety provides the initial impulse; retail participation broadens; and the danger of buying at the top increases with every week the trend continues.
Extreme Greed
Euphoria is easy to recognise because it appears in the newspapers: record highs on the front page, dealers reporting unprecedented demand. Short-term corrections have followed such moments more often than not, though over longer horizons the underlying advance has generally resumed.
Historical Patterns
Gold has been cycling through sentiment extremes for as long as anyone has been recording prices. As the principal investment metal and the traditional crisis asset, it registers macroeconomic change earlier and more visibly than most:
Gold at Its Worst Moments
Three episodes illustrate the pattern. In April 2013 a flash crash removed more than $200 an ounce over two sessions, which would have registered in single figures on this scale. In March 2020 gold was sold precisely because it could be sold, to fund margin calls elsewhere. And through mid-2022 the Federal Reserve's tightening cycle kept the price under pressure month after month. Each was followed by fresh highs within six to eighteen months.
Highs Worth Remembering
The advance of 2024/25 carried gold beyond $2,800 and held the index between 80 and 95 for weeks together. Central bank purchasing on a scale not seen in generations -- China, Poland, Türkiye -- coincided with de-dollarisation and open geopolitical conflict. The instructive part was the duration: extreme greed readings persisted without producing the correction they normally invite, which is the signature of structural rather than speculative demand.
Gold Ahead of the Field
A gold reading well above silver and the industrial metals is the signature of a flight to quality -- money looking for safety without taking on commodity exposure. The rest of the complex has historically followed, but only after a delay measured in weeks or months.
Conclusion: Every crisis leaves its mark on the gold market, and the market remembers. What it does not do is repeat itself precisely. Treat the historical parallels as orientation and nothing more.
Contrarian Investing
Gold is where contrarian positioning works most dependably, and for a structural reason: the very circumstances that alarm everyone else are the circumstances that increase long-term demand for a refuge asset.
Buy When There Is Fear
Gold readings beneath 20 tend to appear during liquidity crises, when gold is sold not because sentiment has turned against it but because it is the most saleable asset available. March 2020 is the model case. Across the past twenty years, a gold reading below 20 has been followed by recovery within six months in over 70 % of instances.
Be Cautious When There Is Greed
Above 85 gold warrants caution, though caution and selling are different things. Gold uptrends can be structurally driven and can run for years, as official-sector accumulation has demonstrated. The measured response during a greed phase is to maintain the regular purchase, decline the additional one, and examine the premium being charged on physical metal very closely indeed.
Conclusion: The strategy consists almost entirely of patience. Investors who bought methodically through the fear phases and did nothing at all during the greed phases have historically outperformed those who let the reading dictate their behaviour.
Limitations & Pitfalls
Even for the most closely observed metal in the world, there are things this measure cannot see:
- ◆ Official-sector buying goes unseen — When a central bank accumulates tonnage, the demand picture alters fundamentally. A technical index observes none of that directly -- only the eventual effect on price, and typically some weeks later.
- ◆ Structural bull markets — Through 2024/25, with de-dollarisation and geopolitics sustaining an uptrend, the reading remained at Extreme Greed for months without the correction that ordinarily follows. The index cannot separate speculative greed from the fundamentally warranted kind.
- ◆ Demand flows specific to gold — Indian and Chinese jewellery purchasing, ETF creations and redemptions, and the supply of recycled metal all move the price materially. None enters the calculation directly.
- ◆ The crisis lag — During a liquidity crisis gold is sold precisely because it retains its value, which is exactly when owning it matters most. The index therefore registers fear at the moment the medium-term case is strongest.
Conclusion: Read the gold score as a compass rather than a map. Central banks, geopolitics and the reserve status of the dollar can each override a short-term sentiment signal completely.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Fear & Greed Index
How frequently does the gold score change?
Once for each trading day, after the London close at 3 p.m. -- the same hour in Dublin, since Ireland keeps London time throughout the year. Weekends and holidays carry the last trading day's value forward. Intraday movement plays no part in the calculation; what is measured is the tone of the whole session.
What explains the consistently higher gold readings?
Because gold has been in a structural uptrend since 2023, sustained by central bank purchasing and de-dollarisation. Persistent momentum and proximity to the record both feed straight into the score. Against that background a gold reading of 70 is nearer to neutral than the same figure would be in platinum.
Does the score help with a monthly gold plan?
As a supplement, certainly. Regular purchasing already addresses timing through cost averaging, but the reading can inform the decisions around it -- adding during fear, declining an unscheduled purchase during extreme greed. Irish investors should also keep the tax position in view, since it is unaffected by sentiment: gains on disposal are charged to Capital Gains Tax at a flat 33 %, with the first €1,270 of gains each year exempt, and no holding period exists that would remove the charge.
How do rate decisions feed into the gold score?
Rising real yields make an asset that pays nothing less attractive, which depresses the price and pulls the reading towards fear. Cuts, or the anticipation of them, work in reverse. Note that the index sees rate expectations only once they have reached the price -- it does not read central bank minutes.
What does this page add over the overview?
The overview places all five metals beside one another for a rapid comparison. This page goes much further on a single metal: the complete indicator breakdown, a dedicated historical chart and a direct link to the current gold price.
Does extreme fear mean I should buy now?
Attentively, yes. Immediately, no. Readings below 15 have been followed by a higher price six months later in roughly 70 % of past cases, which is a strong record and not a guarantee. Two practical points: spread the purchase over several days, and give up on identifying the exact low. In practice nobody catches it.