Technical analysis

MACD line

The distance between a fast (12-day) and a slow (26-day) average of price.

Why it matters

It's a way of measuring whether recent price is separating from its own longer average, and in which direction. Positive means the fast average is above the slow one — price has been rising faster than its own long trend absorbs; negative, the opposite. Its size is in dollars, so it isn't comparable across eras: a MACD line of 500 was enormous in 2017 and is small in 2026.

Build it yourself

Drag the two averages and watch the difference — and, beside it, that same difference as a percentage of price, which IS comparable across eras.

MACD line = 12-day average − 26-day average
MACD line (USD)

The same line as a % of the slow average:

Illustrative example numbers for practice — not real data.

How it's calculated, step by step

  1. A 12-period exponential average of price is computed, and a 26-period one.
  2. MACD line = 12-period average − 26-period average.
Lagging signal / confirmation. Lagging by construction: these are two moving averages, and a moving average can only react to what already happened. It's shown in dollars exactly as the project computes it, unnormalized, so comparing across eras means mentally dividing by price. Tested as a threshold rule it did not beat buy-and-hold.

Chart

This is real Bitcoin data, computed from the blockchain — not the illustrative example above.

Data last updated on 2026-09-09.

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