Two crowds on one 0 to 100 scale. Dumb money is retail sentiment from Reddit and X, ranked against its own history. Smart money is the CNN Fear & Greed Index, published unchanged. This page tracks the gap.
One gauge per crowd, with the gap between them as the headline.
The retail crowd ranked against its own history, smart money as CNN publishes it. The shading flags the days when the gap is stretched: green when smart money leads, red when the crowd leads, faint when balanced. Hover any day.
How far the two sides have pulled apart over the 33 days shown above, plus what fed each score today.
| Day | Retail | Smart money | Divergence | Signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 4 | 83 Extreme Greed | 42 Fear | -41 | Crowd |
| Sep 3 | 83 Extreme Greed | 44 Fear | -39 | Crowd |
| Sep 2 | 79 Extreme Greed | 33 Fear | -46 | Crowd |
| Sep 1 | 87 Extreme Greed | 31 Fear | -56 | Crowd |
| Aug 31 | 69 Greed | 47 Neutral | -22 | Balanced |
| Aug 28 | 73 Greed | 52 Neutral | -21 | Balanced |
| Aug 27 | 72 Greed | 55 Neutral | -17 | Balanced |
| Aug 26 | 67 Greed | 54 Neutral | -13 | Balanced |
The retail leg of this index is one /market-sentiment call per source. Pull the same daily aggregates for Reddit, X, news and Polymarket, then score them however your strategy needs.
Already have a key? Read the API documentation or query it from your terminal with the finance sentiment CLI.
One score for the retail crowd, one for smart money. Retail is ranked as a percentile against its own history (near 0 = calmer than it has been, near 100 = greedier). The headline is the gap between them: a wide gap flags which side leads.
The retail score is built only from Reddit and X social sentiment across the most-discussed tickers, the two venues where the retail crowd talks. It leaves out news and prediction markets, which move on different drivers. It tracks what the crowd feels in real time.
The market score is the CNN Fear & Greed Index, a composite of seven market-structure indicators including momentum, volatility, breadth and safe-haven demand, each weighted equally on a 0 to 100 scale. We publish the value unchanged.
Smart money sits more greedy than the crowd. The accumulation side: quiet money leaning in while the crowd hangs back.
The crowd sits more greedy than smart money. The distribution side: the crowd leaning in while quiet money steps back.
Everything you need to know about the retail-versus-smart-money Fear & Greed Index.
It is a market sentiment indicator that splits the crowd in two and scores each side from 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed). One score tracks the retail crowd from our own social data, the other tracks smart money using the CNN Fear & Greed Index. The signal worth watching is the divergence between them, not either number on its own.
Both. It is a stock market sentiment index shown in the familiar fear-to-greed format. The difference from the classic Fear & Greed Index is that it does not roll everything into one number: it shows the classic market gauge next to what retail is actually saying, so you can watch the two sides diverge.
Retail (sometimes called dumb money) is the loud, surface-level crowd: what people are saying on Reddit and X, scored by us. Smart money is the CNN Fear & Greed Index, built from market structure: momentum, volatility, breadth and safe-haven demand. The two often disagree. That gap is what the index tracks.
It starts from Reddit and X bullish share across the most-discussed tickers. Each source is ranked as a percentile against its own history, then the two are averaged, so a low reading means calmer than the crowd has usually been and a high reading means greedier. It does not use news or prediction markets.
We do not calculate it. It is the CNN Fear & Greed Index, built from seven market-structure indicators weighted equally on a 0 to 100 scale. We show the value CNN publishes.
The index calls a side only when the gap is wider than the band shown beside it. A positive gap means smart money sits more greedy than the crowd (the accumulation side); a negative gap means the crowd sits more greedy than smart money (the distribution side). It describes the current gap, not a forecast.
Because the gap is only highlighted once it passes the band shown on the page, most days sit in the normal range. That is intended: it surfaces the wider gaps in this short sample rather than every daily wiggle.
Not yet in a way we would publish. The index only began in March 2026, so the history is still short, too short for a credible divergence backtest. We treat the index as descriptive for now and let the track record build as history accrues, rather than claim a predictive edge we cannot support.
On this index they are best read as contrarian cues at the extremes. Extreme retail greed while smart money sits low is the cautionary case; extreme retail fear while smart money sits high is the opportune one. The middle of the range carries little signal.
Both sides move during the session. The retail side refreshes as new social posts arrive. CNN publishes a live reading for its index, so the page carries the current day rather than waiting for a close.
This page shows the market-wide composite, aggregated across the most-discussed tickers. The same retail-versus-smart-money method can be applied to a single stock using the per-stock sentiment data behind the retail score.
It is for informational purposes only and is one signal among many. It reflects social discussion and how the market trades, not fundamentals or guaranteed outcomes. Past divergence is not indicative of future performance. Always do your own research.
The retail side, yes: it comes from the Adanos Reddit and X sentiment APIs. Those feeds are the data we sell. The smart-money side is the CNN Fear & Greed Index, published by CNN, so it is not ours to license.
The retail side of this index runs on our Reddit and X sentiment APIs. That market data is what we offer: bullish and bearish share, mentions and trend history, market-wide or per ticker. The smart-money side is the CNN Fear & Greed Index, shown for contrast.