Trend-following strategies

Trend-following buys strength and sells weakness: it waits for a moving-average or regime signal to confirm a direction, rides it, and steps aside when the signal reverses. The trade-off is baked in — because it needs confirmation, it enters after the bottom and exits after the top, giving back part of every move; and in a sideways market the same signals whipsaw it in and out for small losses. It earns its keep in long, persistent trends and struggles everywhere else.

Each one below is a mechanism to test, not a recommendation. Open it to see exactly how it works in plain English, then backtest it yourself — costs on, no look-ahead, measured against buy & hold — or open it in the builder to tweak.The sparkline on each card is the strategy's performance relative to buy & hold — it only rises when the strategy is beating a passive hold.

• 200-Day Reclaim, Death-Cross Exit

  Ethereum

  Enters when price reclaims its 200-day line; exits on the 50/200 death cross or an 18% stop.
• 200-Day Regime Pullback

  Microsoft

  Only trades above the 200-day; re-enters when the fast EMA reclaims the slow after a dip.

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• 50-Day Trend Ride

  Tesla

  Long while price holds above its 50-day average; a trailing stop follows the run.

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• Dual-EMA Crossover 20/50

  Nasdaq-100 ETF (QQQ)

  Long while the 20-EMA leads the 50-EMA; exits on the cross back down, with a trailing stop underneath.

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• Dual-EMA Crossover 20/50

  Solana

  Long while the 20-EMA leads the 50-EMA; ATR stop and time stop bound each trade.
• Golden Cross

  S&P 500 ETF (SPY)

  Goes long on the 50/200 golden cross and exits on the cross back down, with a 12% stop.

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• Ichimoku Cloud Breakout

  Amazon

  Goes long when price clears both cloud spans; exits on the Tenkan/Kijun cross down.

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• MACD Trend Ride

  Nvidia

  Rides the MACD line above its signal; an ATR stop scales risk to volatility.

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• MACD Trend Ride

  Bitcoin

  Enters on MACD crossing above signal; ATR stop plus a time stop cap each trade.