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Trend scan

Golden Cross Screener

A golden cross happens when a stock's 50-day simple moving average crosses above its 200-day simple moving average. This scan finds stocks where that cross happened on the latest trading day.

Run this scan in the live demoFree, no sign-up. The demo uses made-up sample data.

The exact rule

Type this in Chalni: golden cross

  1. SMA(50) crossed above SMA(200)

Find US stocks where the 50-day simple moving average crossed above the 200-day simple moving average today.

Formula view
crosses_above(sma(close, 50), sma(close, 200))
Example chart: Golden crossDaily candles of a made-up sample stock with 50-day SMA; 200-day SMA. The shaded day is the day the scan fired.
  • 50-day SMA
  • 200-day SMA
  • Shaded day: the scan fired
Example from Chalni's made-up sample market, not a real stock. It shows the most recent time this scan fired in the sample US market, picked whether or not the trade worked.

What it means

The 50-day average shows the medium-term trend and the 200-day average shows the long-term trend. When the faster average moves above the slower one, recent prices are now higher than the long-term average, so the trend may have turned up.

The golden cross is one of the most quoted signals in the news, especially for big indexes like the S&P 500. Both averages are slow, so it is a late signal: by the time it happens, the price has usually risen a good deal from its low.

How traders use it

  • Use it as a trend filter, not a precise entry. Many traders wait for a pullback after the cross.
  • Add relative strength to focus on stocks that are leading the market.
  • Its opposite, the death cross, is a common exit or warning signal.

Watch out for

  • In sideways markets the two averages cross back and forth and give false signals (whipsaws).
  • Because it is late, much of the move may be done already. Check how far the price is above the 200-day average.

Test it before you trust it

Every scan in Chalni sits an exam. First it runs on older data, the practice: each time it picks a stock, the stock is held for 10 trading days and 0.2% is paid in costs. Then it runs on newer data it has never seen, the exam. A scan that only works in practice has just memorised the past.

See the practice and exam results for this scan in the demo (on sample data; real data comes at launch).

Questions

Is a golden cross bullish?

It is generally seen as bullish because it shows the trend turning up. But it is a lagging signal, and many crosses fail in choppy markets, so traders confirm it with other rules.

What is the golden cross success rate?

It depends a lot on the market, the time period and trading costs, and published numbers vary widely. That is why Chalni tests every scan on data it never saw before it shows a verdict. The demo uses sample data; results on real data come at launch.

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