How this works

What is the SMA200?

The 200-day Simple Moving Average is the average closing price over the last 200 trading days (roughly 10 months). It's the most-watched long-term trend filter in markets — institutional desks, hedge funds, and retail traders all reference it because price crossings tend to coincide with sustained shifts in trend.

What does the signal mean?

• Close above SMA200 → "uptrend" status. The most basic long-signal in trend-following.
• Close below SMA200 → "downtrend" status. Many systems flatten positions here.

Why does it matter?

A simple "long when above SMA200, flat when below" rule on major indices and leveraged ETFs historically reduces maximum drawdowns by 30-60 percentage points versus buy-and-hold, with similar long-term return. The big benefit isn't headline performance — it's that you sidestep most of the worst drawdowns, which is what determines whether you actually stay invested through a full cycle.

How is the data calculated?

Each ticker's daily closing price for the past ~14 months is pulled from public end-of-day data sources. We compute the 200-day simple moving average of closes and compare today's close to it. Data is refreshed periodically; the "As of" date on each ticker page shows the timestamp of the most recent close used.

What it can't do

The SMA200 is one number. It can't tell you:

• Whether a stock is about to cross its SMA200 (early-warning signals require more sophisticated tools)
• Whether the company has fundamental problems
• Whether there's an upcoming catalyst (earnings, FDA, macro)
• How much risk is appropriate for your situation

This site is a starting point, not a complete trading system.

Built by

Prismatic Enterprises — also building UserDesk and other tools.