I sometimes get questions about our Fear & Greed Index, and why it's different from other ones you'll find out there. It mainly comes down to three things:

(1) Most indexes use many factors, but ultimately the most important factors are price momentum and volatility. However, the weights and the timeframes used for these are different. Also, the way to calculate momentum can vary. These can cause the index to be more or less sensitive to short term price swings for example.

(2) Some of the popular indexes out there use only Bitcoin in their index. In our case, the CMC F&G is 70% weighted to Bitcoin and 30% towards other top 10 cryptocurrencies (no stables of course), so it gives a slightly broader view of the market.

(3) Another factor we use which I haven't seen others mention is the derivative market put/call ratios. A higher ratio of puts vs calls, for example, indicates relative fear.

By the way, our Fear & Greed index is now available in our API, and we're also working on a better standalone page to view the index's historical data as well as compare it to the overall market.