Maybe you can post a screen grab example showing how might help? Bear in mind OP is talking about futures and on a 1-5 minute basis.
When markets are trending MAs work OK but in ranging markets you can get chopped up. Maybe add ADX (above 25 & rising) to watch for trending? When trading small timeframes I think it helps to zoom out to see the picture better. Min.1...Min.3...Min.5... (50/200 EMA)(S&P500)
Not an indicator guy, but using a simple 3 day swing works just fine compared to looking at higher time frames. Not sure why an intra-day trader would look at a weekly or monthly chart when he's trying for short term moves regardless of what the long term trend is doing.
Because sometimes the market moves a lot, sometimes a little moves very fast, sometimes very slow moves decisively, sometimes very jerkily ....
If your stats show that your entries get better without the fitty and 200 congrats and give 'em the boot! What method do you use with 50 200 to enter a trade?
I find sometimes the 50 and 200 act like support and resistance, sometimes price just goes right thru them. Yesterdays high and low the same thing, just happened today trading soybeans. Price came up just below yesterdays high so I sold. Then price went over yesterdays high, when it did the high is supposed to be support. I got in and sure enough price goes right down thru yesterdays high, irritating as hell. I don't use either MA to enter a trade, just trying to see if they are res and supp.
Do your stats support that type of entry? In other words, if you go out and find a dozen times when "Price came up just below yesterdays high so I sold" and save a screenshot of it and record how that played out, do enough of them out of 12 turn out to be losers to reject that method in that form? Do you notice something in common with the priceaction around that level for the ones that won vs the ones that lost? Based on that quick look can you decide whether to adjust your rules and do a dozen more with that type of setup or to just move on? Here's one you could try a dozen on that has the rules all worked out for ya, and a boatload more ideas to test if that's of interest. Your mileage will vary. Double Top and Bottom https://elitetrader.com/et/threads/...t-right-here-baby.335635/page-18#post-5309309
Here's something similar from a cat who trades all the time. Maybe he can give you some pointers? https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/cl-redux.178741/page-3494#post-5761077