Golden & Death Cross Finder

A golden cross happens when a stock’s 50-day moving average (SMA 50) rises above its 200-day moving average (SMA 200): the price over the last ten weeks is then, on average, higher than over the last year. A death cross is the opposite: the SMA 50 drops below the SMA 200. They are the best-known trend signals in the market.

This widget scans all FreeStoxx stocks every trading day and shows the new crosses of the last few sessions, plus stocks where a cross looks imminent. For every stock you immediately see what that signal was worth over the past 20 years.

How the backtest works

• Entry the day after the signal. A cross is only known at that day’s close, so the backtest buys or sells at the close of the next trading day. Dividends are included.
• Compared with any other day. After a golden cross, strong stocks almost always rise — but they also do without one. So we put the return after the signal next to the stock’s normal return over the same period. Only the difference says something about the cross itself.
• Medals. Gold, silver and bronze go to the three stocks in the list where this type of cross worked best over 12 months during the past 20 years: the highest return after a golden cross, the steepest decline after a death cross. Only stocks with at least 5 signals take part.
• Option trades. For stocks with options (OPT label) we show three example trades with roughly 3 months to expiry: after a golden cross a call, a written put and a bull call spread; after a death cross a put, a bear put spread and a bear call spread. They are examples at the mid price of the last close, not advice.
• Reliability. Over 20 years a stock usually has only 5 to 15 crosses. That is little to build conclusions on; the label (high / limited / low) shows how many signals are behind the figures. The “20 years in numbers” block at the top pools every cross of every liquid stock and therefore gives the most robust answer.