The main advantages of the 200-day moving average are simplicity, riding the trend, and playing defense. However, without a recession and falling prices, you are unlikely to beat buy-and-hold because of the many whipsaws. As with most things in life, the 200-day moving average comes with both pros and cons. The 200-day moving average strategy is no silver bullet.
We backtest the following trading rules:
* Buy when the close of the S&P 500 crosses above the 200-day average,
* Sell when it closes below the average.
This is a crossover system. It can't get any simpler than that! Here is the return (log chart) of investing 100 000 in 1960 and reinvesting and compounding until today (Shown in the image below)
We have published the detailed performance metrics and also one more backtest with a different timeline. Check out how it performs here >>
https://www.quantifiedstrategies.com/200-day-moving-average/