← Glossary · Strategy
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt)
Negative market sentiment from rumor or bad news that creates emotional sell pressure.
What it is
FUD is the bear-market sibling of FOMO. Negative news (regulatory crackdowns, exchange hacks, founder drama) spreads on Twitter, panicked sellers dump, price drops 10-20% in hours. Sometimes FUD is justified (Mt. Gox, FTX) — but often it's an over-reaction that creates a buy opportunity. Distinguishing real fundamental risk from emotional FUD requires reading the actual source, not the Twitter summary. Professional traders watch for 'FUD bottoms': capitulation candles with extreme volume that mark the absolute panic low, typically followed by sharp recoveries.
Example
Rumor spreads that an exchange will delist a popular altcoin. Token drops 25% in 4 hours on heavy volume. The exchange denies it 12 hours later. Token recovers 20% within a day. Traders who bought the FUD low captured a 20% bounce.
How Indikora uses FUD
Indikora's news-sentiment engine LLM-classifies every headline to distinguish real fundamental news from low-credibility FUD.
Related terms
- FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) — The emotional urge to buy an asset already rallying because you fear missing further gains — the #1 retail trap.