"Usually calculated by comparing a 50-day to a 200-day moving average, golden crosses are interpreted to mean that a stock is going up. The idea behind a golden cross is that if an investment's performance is continuing to lag, both the 50-day and the 200-day averages should stay about the same distance from each other. If the 50-day average picks up and crosses the longer-term average, it's a sign that the investment's price has started to increase and that there could be further upward momentum."