The signals
- Golden cross: the 50-day simple moving average crosses above the 200-day, in the last 10 trading days. A classic long-term bullish signal.
- Death cross: the 50-day crosses below the 200-day: the bearish counterpart.
- 20/50 cross: a faster version, for swing traders.
- Price vs 200-day: the closing price crossed above or below its 200-day average in the last 5 days.
- Bullish stack: price above the 20-day, above the 50-day, above the 200-day. The bearish stack is the reverse.
Crossovers are lagging signals: they confirm a trend that has already started. The “days ago” column shows how fresh each one is.
Frequently asked questions
Why does a cross show “today” but the chart looks different?
The latest candle is the current day while the market is open, so a cross that happens during the day can still undo itself by the close.
Why do I need an Alpaca key?
US stock prices are licensed data, so they can’t be handed out for free by a website. Alpaca gives anyone a free market-data key that allows 200 requests a minute and returns many stocks per request, which is enough to scan the whole list. Your key is saved only in your browser and is sent only to Alpaca. See how to get a free Alpaca key.
Which stocks does it scan?
About 600 US stocks and ETFs: roughly the S&P 500, popular growth and momentum names, and around 75 of the most traded ETFs. The largest 135 load first; the rest follow automatically a few seconds later.
Is the data real-time?
Alpaca’s free data is 15 minutes behind the market. Daily figures update through the trading day, and the latest candle is the current (unfinished) day while the market is open.