Junk bond demand

Whether investors are happy to lend to riskier companies. Compares high-yield (junk) bonds (HYG) with safe Treasuries of similar length (IEF).

Formula

Reading = 20-day return of junk bonds − 20-day return of Treasuries · Score = percentile of today's reading among the last 252 trading days

Worked example

1. Today's reading: +0.12% high-yield minus Treasuries (20 days)
2. Compare it with every daily reading over the past year (252 trading days).
3. Today's reading is higher than 55% of the past year's readings.

Result: 55 / 100 · neutral

How to read it

Junk bonds doing better = investors reaching for yield (greed). Doing worse = worry about defaults (fear).

Daily ETF closing prices from Twelve Data

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