Learn the terms · Longer read
Moving averages, golden crosses and death crosses
The average closing price over the last N days - here 20 and 50 - recalculated each day so it moves with the price. It smooths daily noise so the direction is easier to see. The 20-day rising above the 50-day is called a golden cross; the reverse, a death cross.
What it measures
Take the last 20 closing prices and average them. Tomorrow, drop the oldest, add the newest, average again. That is a 20-day simple moving average, and plotted over time it is a smoother version of the price itself. A 50-day average is smoother still and slower to turn. Trendentum uses 20 and 50 by default; the methodology page states the values, and your strategy settings can change them - for this chart figure only, never for the outlook.
The point of two averages is the gap between them. When the 20-day is above the 50-day, recent prices have on average been higher than the last ten weeks' prices - the shorter-term direction is up relative to the medium term. When it is below, the reverse. Trendentum's chart figure states that relationship - which average is above the other today - with both values and no cross date.
Golden cross, death cross
The names are dramatic; the arithmetic is not. A golden cross is the day the 20-day average rises through the 50-day. A death cross is the day it falls through. Both happen after the price has already moved enough to drag the averages across each other, which is why moving-average signals are described as lagging: they confirm a change in direction rather than anticipate it.
That lag is a trade-off, not a flaw. A slower read gives fewer false starts than a fast one, at the cost of being later. Where it goes wrong is the same place MACD does - a sideways market, where the two lines braid around each other and cross repeatedly. Trendentum's backdrop row says when the index itself is range-bound, because that is when a cross has historically meant least.
What it is not
A moving average is not support, resistance or a fair price, although you will hear all three claimed. It is the mean of recent closes. A price "bouncing off its 50-day" is a pattern people notice after the fact far more often than one they can rely on before it.
On Trendentum the 20/50 comparison no longer votes. Until 8 October 2026 it was one of five rules behind the outlook; it is now a chart figure with no vote - "short-term average above long-term", with both values - and the backtester does not score it. The chart on the stock page draws both lines, so you can see when they crossed. The outlook's Trend (past year) reading is a different, slower measure: the 200-day average together with the twelve-month return.
An example
A stock has traded between 18 and 20 for three months, so its 20-day and 50-day averages both sit near 19 and cross each other every few weeks with nothing to show for it. Then it breaks to 23 on results and holds there. The 20-day average climbs to 21 within a fortnight; the 50-day takes over a month to follow. The golden cross prints weeks after the break - late, as it always is - and stays in place for as long as the shorter average leads. The lag cost you the first move and saved you three false crosses in the range before it.
Where you’ll see it on Trendentum
- Each stock's "Chart figures (no vote)" - the 20-day and 50-day averages and which is above
- The stock page chart, both lines drawn
- The methodology page, for the exact windows
Every term on this page is used the same way across the app, and the exact settings behind each chart figure are on the methodology page. Trendentum explains every call and never tells you what to do with it.