Fear & Greed, Altcoin Season, BTC Sentiment, Average RSI, Total Market Cap. The five top-level indicators every trader watches.

The Market Overview section at the top of Monitor is five indicators that together describe the state of the market at a glance. None of them are buy/sell signals — they're context. This article explains each one and how traders use them together.

Fear & Greed Index

A 0-to-100 score that aggregates volatility, momentum, social sentiment, surveys, and trends. The full crypto market's mood, condensed to one number.

Range	Label	What it means
0–25	Extreme Fear	Panic selling, oversold. Often near major bottoms.
26–45	Fear	Caution, low volume.
46–55	Neutral	No strong directional bias.
56–74	Greed	Confidence, momentum. Healthy uptrend zone.
75–100	Extreme Greed	Euphoria, parabolic moves. Often near tops.

How to use: Don't fight extreme readings. Buying during Extreme Fear (below 25) and trimming during Extreme Greed (above 80) is a 5+ year-tested pattern. Inside the 30–70 range, sentiment is "normal" and you trade the chart.

Altcoin Season Index

A 0-to-100 score measuring whether money is flowing into Bitcoin or into altcoins. Calculated as the percentage of the top 50 alts (excluding BTC) that have outperformed Bitcoin over the past 90 days.

Range	What it means
0–25	BTC Season — Bitcoin leading, alts bleeding.
26–50	Mixed — coin-specific moves, no clear theme.
51–74	Altcoin Season — alts beating BTC.
75–100	Hyper Altcoin Season — total rotation into alts.

How to use: During Altcoin Season, alt longs work better than BTC longs (statistically). During BTC Season, focus on BTC and large caps; small-cap alts tend to underperform.

BTC Sentiment

Derivative-market positioning on Bitcoin specifically: aggregate funding rates, long/short ratio, open interest growth. A 0–100 score where:

Below 30: bears in control, shorts crowded.
30–70: balanced.
Above 70: bulls in control, longs crowded.

How to use: Extreme readings (very low or very high) often precede mean reversion. If sentiment is 90+ and BTC has rallied for a week, a pullback becomes more likely. If sentiment is 10 and BTC is bottoming after a crash, a bounce becomes more likely.

Average RSI

The average 14-day RSI across the top 100 coins. RSI ranges 0–100:

Below 30: overall market oversold.
30–50: bearish/neutral.
50–70: bullish/neutral.
Above 70: overall market overbought.

How to use: Like Fear & Greed, extremes don't mean "reverse immediately" — they mean "be careful." A 75+ average RSI for the market is not the moment to add new longs.

Total Market Cap

The aggregate USD value of all cryptocurrencies. Less of a sentiment indicator and more of a backdrop reading: is the whole pie growing or shrinking?

Growing market cap + falling Fear & Greed = bullish divergence, often a setup.
Falling market cap + rising Fear & Greed = bearish divergence, often a warning.

How to use: Watch the slope, not the number. A flat market cap means range-bound conditions where most trade setups underperform.

Reading them together

The skill is in combining the five into a single read. Three example states:

Bull regime (take aggressive longs)

Fear & Greed: 55–70
Altcoin Season: 51–74
BTC Sentiment: 50–70
Avg RSI: 50–65
Market cap: rising

Distribution top (reduce exposure)

Fear & Greed: 75+
Altcoin Season: 75+
BTC Sentiment: 80+
Avg RSI: 70+
Market cap: flattening at highs

Capitulation bottom (build longs slowly)

Fear & Greed: < 25
Altcoin Season: < 30
BTC Sentiment: < 25
Avg RSI: < 35
Market cap: bottoming after major decline

None of these are guarantees. They're probabilities. A trade taken in a Bull regime that loses is not "wrong" — it's just a -1% outcome inside a positive expectation.

Common mistakes

Single-indicator trades. "Fear & Greed dropped to 30, time to buy!" — without checking the other four, you might be calling a falling knife.
Ignoring direction. Fear & Greed at 50 going from 30 → 50 is bullish. From 70 → 50 is bearish. The level matters less than the slope.
Reading at noise resolution. These indicators move on multi-hour and multi-day timeframes. Checking every 15 minutes is wasted effort.
Using market sentiment to override a signal. Signals already incorporate the analyst's view of context. Use sentiment to confirm, not to second-guess.

In CSAPP

Tap any indicator card in the Market Overview section for the full reading: current value, historical chart, color scale, and analyst notes. The Market Overview is also available as a home-screen widget — long-press a card to add it.

Market Sentiment Indicators