Metric guide

Death Cross

Trend signal: SMA50 crosses below SMA200

Explanatory metricFoxScore methodology

Plain-language summary

What this metric tells you

Death Cross is the bearish mirror of the Golden Cross: the 50-day moving average crossed below the 200-day average. It is a technical warning event, not a full diagnosis of how weak the asset is.

Key takeaway

A Death Cross marks that short-term structure has deteriorated versus the long-term baseline. It does not tell you whether the move is already overextended, near a bottom, or about to reverse.

FoxScore context

How FoxScore uses it

FoxScore uses Death Cross as supporting chart context, not as a full standalone ranking verdict.
It helps users identify where medium-term structure has weakened against the long-term baseline.
The signal becomes much more informative once you also inspect price location and trend quality.

What it measures

Whether the short-term average has most recently crossed below the long-term average.
A classic technical deterioration event followed by many trend watchers.
A binary warning marker rather than a continuous weakness score.

How to read it

Yes means this bearish crossover event most recently triggered.
No does not automatically mean strength; it only means this particular event is not the latest active one.
Always combine binary cross signals with continuous trend and drawdown metrics.

What can mislead

How severe the weakness is after the signal.
You assume the event always comes early rather than late.
You ignore the possibility of sharp rebounds after a deeply extended decline.

Most useful when

You want to know whether a trend breakdown has already been confirmed by moving averages.
You use crossover events to triage weak charts quickly.
You want a simple structural warning before opening full risk pages.

Important limits

How severe the weakness is after the signal.
How far price already sits below the long-term average.
Whether the market is already recovering after the event.

Methodology and sources

Technical definition, calculation notes and sources stay available here without dominating the explanation.

Description

A death cross is the counterpart to the golden cross and is often interpreted as a bearish trend signal.

It occurs when the short-term average (SMA50) falls below the long-term average (SMA200).

Important: this is an event. It marks the crossover point, not the strength of the subsequent move.

Calculation

1) SMA50 = average of the last 50 days
2) SMA200 = average of the last 200 days
3) Death Cross = 1 if (SMA50 < SMA200) AND (SMA50_prevday ≥ SMA200_prevday), otherwise 0