Fear and greed in 2020: The early coronavirus era
Let's take a look at the classic CNN fear and greed index in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The health crisis inspired a hard stock market crash in March 2020, followed by a return to fresh all-time highs just a few months later.
Did the fear and greed index provide any useful signals while the COVID-19 panic played out? Well, let's see.
The market entered 2020 on a high note as the fear and greed index rose above 90 around the New Year's holiday. Early rumblings about a health crisis emerging from the Far East quickly drove the index back to middling scores in January, followed by a brief retreat to "extreme fear" when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared a pandemic and lockdowns started.
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