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.
Six market indicators are refreshed daily and weighted into a score from 0 to 100. Vehicle production statistics and interruptions at South African mines are the two things most likely to move this market, and both tend to arrive suddenly, which is why platinum sentiment shifts in steps rather than gradually.
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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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 indicators combine into the daily platinum figure. Each is converted onto the common 0--100 scale before weighting, and those weights allow for the particular character of this market: modest liquidity, and a supply side concentrated in a single country.
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
Platinum tends to occupy a single band for a long stretch and then move without much warning. The trigger is rarely internal to the metal -- it is a change of direction in vehicle manufacturing, or a supply interruption in South Africa.
Extreme Fear
The market gives way entirely. A slump in vehicle output, weak jewellery demand or a general liquidity shock produces selling that meets no support. Platinum offers little of the refuge value gold provides, so it typically falls harder and stays down longer.
Fear
Unwelcome news from vehicle manufacturers, or another round of production trouble in South Africa, unsettles holders. The price itself provides the counterweight: at this discount to gold, long-horizon buyers begin to take an interest.
Neutral
Drift. Vehicle production proceeds steadily, neither jewellery nor investment demand supplies an impulse, and the price moves sideways. These periods are typically used for repositioning ahead of the next cycle.
Greed
Confidence returns -- through recovering vehicle production, hydrogen enthusiasm, or renewed Chinese jewellery buying. The wide gold-platinum ratio supplies a catch-up argument that is easy to tell and hard to verify.
Extreme Greed
Uncommon, and intense when it occurs. The usual recipe is a South African supply shortfall arriving alongside firm industrial demand. Someone always describes platinum as "the new gold" during these episodes, and that phrase has proved as good a sell signal as anything we calculate.
Historical Patterns
What shows up in platinum's sentiment record is structural upheaval rather than ordinary cyclicality. The diesel emissions scandal, the arrival of battery vehicles and repeated South African supply shocks have each forced the market to revise its assumptions.
A Crisis of Confidence in Platinum
The 2015 diesel emissions scandal opened a period of pessimism measured in years, carrying the price from above $1,100 down beneath $600. What held the index in the fear band was not an acute crisis but a slow revision of expectations, as the market withdrew its belief in the diesel catalyst. The low arrived as late as March 2020 -- an eighteen-year trough beneath $600.
Betting on Fuel Cells
Extreme greed is rare in platinum, which is why individual episodes stand out. Through 2021 the price rose from $1,000 to over $1,300 within months, driven by fuel cell speculation -- hydrogen technology consumes platinum in quantity -- and by concern over South African output. The index briefly exceeded 85. Such rallies have historically been short-lived, because the demand required to sustain them never materialised.
The Platinum-Palladium Mirror
The most informative configuration in this pair is a split: platinum in fear whilst palladium shows greed, which reflects the balance between petrol and diesel in the vehicle fleet. Invert it -- platinum stronger than palladium -- and you are observing substitution, with manufacturers reformulating petrol catalysts away from palladium.
Conclusion: Platinum occupies the space between a closing era and one that has not yet opened. Sentiment signals carry unusual weight in that position, because the market alternates between what it fears about diesel and what it hopes about hydrogen.
Contrarian Investing
Platinum presents contrarians with an unusual starting position: it has traded below its long-run average against gold for years. Whether that represents a permanent repricing or a standing opportunity depends entirely on your view of hydrogen.
Buy When There Is Fear
Platinum beneath 20 generally arrives with weak vehicle data and a firm gold price, pushing the gold-platinum ratio above 2.0. That extreme has historically indicated catch-up potential. Expect to wait for it, though: platinum draws far less crisis buying than gold, so any recovery must come from the industrial side of the market.
Be Cautious When There Is Greed
Greed phases in platinum are rare and almost always attached to a specific event -- a South African supply shock, a hydrogen announcement, a speculative catch-up trade. The question to ask above 80 is whether demand has confirmed the story. Where the advance rests on narrative alone, heightened caution is justified.
Conclusion: Platinum requires a longer horizon than gold or silver. The contrarian signal is sound in itself, but execution demands patience, because structural change -- electrification, hydrogen -- proceeds at a pace no short-term sentiment measure can capture.
Limitations & Pitfalls
A metal suspended between a declining application and an unproven one presents particular measurement difficulties:
- ◆ A thin market — Measured over a year, platinum trades in a fraction of the volume gold or silver does. A single institutional position of moderate scale can move the price perceptibly, and the index cannot distinguish that from a real shift in sentiment.
- ◆ Structural change concealed beneath the cycle — The long decline of diesel has permanently lowered what counts as a normal price level. Comparing current readings against anything before 2015 is consequently of limited value.
- ◆ Everything depends on South Africa — More than 70 % of supply comes from a single country. Load-shedding, industrial action or political instability can reprice the market overnight, and a technical measure registers such shocks only after the event.
- ◆ Substitution flows — Platinum is increasingly used in place of palladium in petrol catalysts, creating a demand stream that the technical indicators have not yet fully absorbed.
Conclusion: Platinum's reading has to be interpreted against a background of structural change. The contrarian reading holds, but it needs supplementing with a view on vehicle markets and on South African supply.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Fear & Greed Index
How often does the platinum score update?
Once per trading day, from daily closing and spot market data. Platinum trades with markedly less liquidity than gold, so an individual unusual session can move the reading further than might be expected.
What keeps platinum readings under those of gold?
Platinum has been losing ground to gold since the diesel scandal of 2015, and both the momentum and record-high components register that persistent weakness. The practical consequence is recalibration: a platinum reading of 50 may indicate relative strength rather than neutrality.
How does the shift to battery vehicles feed in?
Battery vehicles carry no exhaust catalyst and therefore require no platinum, so every advance in adoption weighs on demand expectations and on the reading. The counterweight is hydrogen, since fuel cells consume platinum in quantity -- but that demand remains largely unpriced.
Can the score guide a move from gold into platinum?
Yes, provided the gold-platinum ratio is read alongside it. Platinum at extreme fear whilst the ratio exceeds 2.0 has historically marked substantial undervaluation. Be realistic about the timeframe: a switch of this kind wants one to three years rather than one to three months.
Do power cuts in South Africa move the score?
Load-shedding restricts production and can lift the price rapidly, pushing the reading towards greed. The effect rarely persists, because it originates on the supply side rather than in demand. Lasting change in platinum sentiment has to come from the demand side.
Is platinum the stronger contrarian case?
On paper the discount to gold makes the argument. In practice execution is harder: thinner liquidity, fewer investment products, and a demand outlook resting on technologies not yet settled. For an investor with real patience it can nevertheless be the more interesting proposition.