In order to understand the stock market death cross, there’s an important concept called a crossover which first has to be understood. Consider the crossover an essential foundation for reading a death cross – without this important charting event, no reading can take place. So what is a crossover? A crossover occurs when a security intersects one of its key technical indicators. The key indicators used to predict future movement of a stock vary, but the daily moving average continues to hold sway among traders and investors. An example of such a crossover would be when a security – i.e.