What is gold market sentiment today? Our fear and greed index for gold combines price momentum, dollar strength, real interest rates and volatility into a single 0-100 score — updated daily, with 5 years of free public history.
Very pessimistic sentiment. Panic-level selling pressure.
Cautious sentiment. Investors seeking safety.
Balanced sentiment. No clear trend.
Optimistic sentiment. Investors taking risks.
Market euphoria. Stretched, one-sided optimism.
The Gold Index measures sentiment TOWARDS gold using 6 components. We measure whether investors are buying or selling gold and whether they are allocating to it as a safe haven, regardless of the underlying macro reason. All scores from 0-100:
Direct 14-day GLD performance
Measures direct SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) price change over 14 days. GLD +10% = score 100 (extreme greed), GLD -10% = score 0 (extreme fear). Captures actual buying/selling sentiment regardless of the underlying reason. Uses a x5 multiplier centered at 50.
Mean-reversion and trend signal
Combines 14-day RSI with price position relative to 50-day and 200-day moving averages. Contribution scales with distance from each MA rather than binary signals. RSI provides a ±25 point contribution centered at 50. Price above MA50 by 10% = strong bullish signal; price below both MAs with RSI < 30 = extreme fear.
Safe-haven allocation flow
Compares gold's 14-day return against the S&P500 (SPY ETF). Gold outperforming stocks = investors choosing gold as safe haven = higher score. Gold +5% while stocks -5% = strong safe-haven demand. Gold underperforming stocks = risk-on environment, less demand for gold. Uses a x2.5 multiplier on the relative performance gap.
USD strength (inverted correlation)
Gold and the dollar typically move inversely. Weakening dollar = stronger gold demand = higher score. Tracks 14-day change in DXY (US Dollar Index vs basket of currencies) with a x15 multiplier. Dollar down 3.3% = score 100, dollar up 3.3% = score 0.
10-Year TIPS yield (inflation-adjusted)
Gold is a non-yielding asset, so lower real rates = more attractive gold = higher score. Uses FRED API (DFII10 — 10-Year Treasury Inflation-Indexed Security) with Yahoo Finance fallback. Real rate at -1% = score ~94, at +3% = score ~19.
Market stress / safe haven demand
Compares current VIX to its 3-month average using a z-score with tanh normalization. VIX above average = market stress = increased safe haven demand for gold = higher score. Uses tanh(z × 0.7) × 50 formula: smooth compression with no hard saturation cliff, preserving signal even during extreme volatility spikes.
Full cross-asset methodology and data sources available on the About page.
It compares the daily price moves of gold and one other index over the last 90 trading days — about a quarter. The percentage is the share of their movement that goes together: 30% means roughly a third of what one did on a given day is echoed in the other. Weekends and market holidays are left out, since gold, stocks and bonds do not trade then while crypto does.
“Usually” is the median of that same figure across five years of history, so it says whether today is ordinary for this pair or not. The direction matters as much as the size: two indices can be strongly linked while moving in opposite directions — which is what gold does when it acts as a hedge.
Yes — and it's the most common confusion with sentiment indices. The index measures sentiment: momentum, positioning, flows — not the price level. Gold can trade near its highs while its momentum cools, the dollar strengthens, or investors rotate toward stocks: the index reads that as Fear. A low score doesn't mean gold is cheap; it means recent behavior around gold is cautious.
CNN's index covers US stocks only — there is no CNN index for gold. This is a dedicated gold sentiment index, with six published components and weights you can verify, alongside our Stocks, Bonds and Crypto indices for cross-asset comparison. CNN's methodology is proprietary; ours is fully documented.
Mostly the dollar (they move inversely) and real interest rates — and less than you'd think by panic: in five years of our data, gold barely reacts on high-stress market days. It's a slow diversifier, not an intraday hedge. Its biggest sentiment swings have come from its own momentum: sharp corrections after strong runs.
The index measures sentiment, not value — it won't answer that. In our own backtests, Extreme Fear has not been a reliable buy signal for gold. Treat extreme readings as context about the crowd's mood: rare conditions worth your attention, not an instruction.
Daily, shortly after the US market close. The full data is free and public: current score, all six components, one year of daily history — plus five years of aligned score-and-price history in open JSON. No key, no signup.