Death Cross

Death Cross is a free MT5 indicator that draws a fast and a slow moving average on your price chart (SMA 50 and SMA 200 by default). It places an arrow on the closed bar where the fast line drops below the slow one. In the Lab's repaint test on EURUSD M15, 0 of 36 signals changed after the bar closed.

It is for swing and position traders who want a clear, alertable signal when a market turns bearish, and a way to check whether that turn is holding or just chop.

What the Death Cross indicator draws on your chart

A Death Cross is the moment a faster moving average closes below a slower one, which many traders read as the start of a bearish phase. A Golden Cross is the mirror case.

The indicator draws everything in the main chart window, not in a separate subwindow:

• Fast MA and Slow MA lines. These are the two averages being compared.
• Death Cross arrow. It is the main signal and the only one that triggers alerts.
• Golden Cross arrow. This is a secondary arrow that ends the bearish regime.
• Regime Zone shading. A rectangle colours each bearish or bullish stretch from one cross to the next.
• Regime panel. This is an on-chart status card. The next tab explains how to read it row by row.

The Lab tested version 1.03 (110.1 KB) on MT5 build 6230 on 2026-10-09. Version 1.03 added the panel's history row, which counts how past Death Crosses on your chart played out.

How the Lab tested it

The test ran on EURUSD M15 from 2026-07-09 to 2026-10-08, using real ticks from Raw Trading Ltd, with default inputs. The Lab logged every arrow as it appeared and then checked whether any of them later moved or disappeared.

• Repaint: 0 of 36 signals changed, and the maximum arrow delay was 0 bars. An arrow you see on a closed bar stays where it is. It also appears on the bar where the cross is confirmed, not several bars later.
• Frequency: 2.8 signals per week across both arrows, which works out to 1.4 Death Crosses and 1.4 Golden Crosses per week. Even on M15, 50/200 crosses are rare, so the indicator suits waiting for a signal, not trading often.

What the signals did next

The Lab also checked whether price first moved 1 ATR in the arrow's direction or 1 ATR against it. ATR (Average True Range) is the market's normal bar-to-bar range. For a Death Cross, the arrow's direction is down. The chart below compares the two arrows.

Here is what those numbers mean for you:

• Death Cross: 58.8%. Price hit 1 ATR lower before 1 ATR higher a little more often than a coin flip would. The median time to that move was 4.0 bars, and 5.6% of Death Crosses reached neither level within 20 bars. That edge is too small to sell on the arrow alone. Use it as a regime signal and confirm it with a filter.
• Golden Cross: 61.1%, with a median of 3.0 bars and 0.0% left unresolved after 20 bars. In this sample, price reached 1 ATR up first in 61.1% of Golden Crosses, with a median of 3 bars.
• Overall: 60%, a median of 3 bars, and 2.8% unresolved after 20 bars.

The test covered one symbol, one timeframe and three months, so 18 signals per arrow is a small sample. Treat these numbers as a description of that period, not a forecast.

Who should use it and who should skip it

It fits traders who already trade with the trend, want an objective rule for when the trend has turned bearish, and value seeing whether a cross is clean or part of a choppy stretch. Skip it if you scalp or need several setups a day. A 50/200 cross is a slow, lagging signal by design.

Install: copy the file into your MT5 MQL5/Indicators folder, refresh the Navigator and drag Death Cross onto a chart.

When the Death Cross arrow fires

The arrow fires only when two closed bars agree. On the previous closed bar, the fast MA was at or above the slow MA. On the latest closed bar, the fast MA is below it. The Golden Cross arrow uses the same rule in reverse.

Common misread: you watch the lines cross in the middle of a bar and no arrow appears. That is expected. If the bar closes with the lines crossed back, there was never a signal. Wait for the close and judge the arrow, not the live lines.

The chart below shows the typical shape: an uptrend loses steam, price rolls over, and the arrow prints on the closed bar where the bearish shading begins.

In the illustration, price had already fallen from the top before the arrow printed.

How to read the Regime panel

The panel shows the following, from top to bottom:

• Main card. It shows the current regime (Death Cross, Bearish or Bullish), how many bars have passed since the last cross, and a 1-5 bar that fills as more checks pass.
• Last Death Cross. It shows how many bars ago the last Death Cross printed and whether that Death Cross is still active or has ended.
• Checks row. It lists which checks passed: Gap, Widening, Clean and HTF. A Death Cross that passes more checks deserves more trust than one that passes only one.
• MA values and separation. The panel shows both MA values and the gap between them, measured in ATR by default or in %. A label reads Strong, Weak or Early.
• Whipsaw flag. It switches on when the lines have crossed 2 or more times in the last ChopLookbackBars bars.
• Higher-timeframe confirmation. It shows whether the higher timeframe is in the same regime.
• History row ("Lower +50"). It counts how many past Death Crosses on this chart closed lower FastPeriod bars later, split by whether the whipsaw flag was on at the cross. This is your own quick back-check for the symbol and timeframe you are looking at.

The regime shading is never removed while the indicator runs. On a long history it builds up into colour bands. Set ShowRegimeShading to false if you only want the arrows.

Inputs to change first

• FastPeriod (50, range 5-100) and SlowPeriod (200, range 50-400). These set the classic 50/200 pair. Shorter periods give more crosses and more noise. FastPeriod also sets how far ahead the history row looks.
• MAMethod (SMA) and AppliedPrice (Close). These apply to both lines. SMA is the classic Death Cross definition.
• SeparationMode (ATR). ATR mode divides the gap by the ATR of SlowPeriod, so the Strong label means the same on every symbol and timeframe. StrongSeparationATR (1, range 0.1-10) sets the Strong threshold in ATR mode. MinSeparationPct (0.3, range 0-5) sets it in percent mode.
• ChopLookbackBars (50, range 10-300). This sets how many recent bars the whipsaw check scans.
• UseHigherTF (on) and HigherTFMode (Auto). Auto compares against D1 on charts up to H4 and against W1 on D1. The check is off from W1 up. Set HigherTFMode to Manual and choose HigherTFManual if you want a different higher timeframe.
• Display inputs. ShowMALines, ShowDashboard and PanelScale (1) control what is visible and how big the panel is.

Alerts and where they appear

• AlertPopup is on by default and opens the MT5 alert window.
• AlertPush is off by default and sends a notification to the MetaTrader app on your phone. Turn it on if you want phone alerts. It also needs push notifications set up in your terminal.
• AlertSound is off by default and plays the file named in AlertSoundFile (alert.wav).
• AlertWhipsaw is off by default and also alerts when the whipsaw warning switches on.
• RequireHTFConfirm (off by default) alerts a Death Cross only when the higher timeframe is also bearish.

A decision rule for each arrow

• Death Cross (the Lab's suggestion, not tested): act on it only if the whipsaw flag is off, the higher timeframe is bearish, and the separation label is not Weak. The Lab did not measure results with these filters; the 58.8% is for every Death Cross arrow. The higher-timeframe part needs UseHigherTF on, and in Auto mode it does nothing on W1 and higher charts. If the flag is on, treat the arrow as information and wait. If price is already far below both lines when the arrow prints, the easy part of the move may be over.
• Golden Cross: use it as the end of the bearish case. Close or stop adding to bearish positions. Do not treat it automatically as a new buy.