On 1) Any MA can be made so it "crosses over", so that tell you it is relative. So therefore the notion of "crossing" is arbitrary, group thinking aside. On 2) Back testing sucks with MAs because the reality of real time, intra-bar painting is never captured. Plus the obvious curve fitting to static data. On 3) First and second derivative are relevant. If one does not know what that means they don't understand MA's represent beyond the MA part. On 4) These people are not Newbies, and details of such a discussion is beyond the scope.
Many years ago, I ran a little experiment with coin flipping and a 20 period moving average while watching a movie. (No, I didn't have much of a life) I flipped it 1000 times and put the results on graph paper. I was amazed at how many times the graph precisely bounced off of the MA from 1000 random coin tosses. I was just curious and I don't use them. Just my 1 1/2 cents.
%% A badger has dark fur around his eyes\ = natural sunglasses..NOT a prediction /a 200 day moving average can be 10 times better, so much less slippage. An interstate \hi speed hi-way can work real well , but i seldom try to use them @ rush hour...............................................................................Good post, more educational than most movies.
Who exactly is this post for or what made you post it? Are you trying to convince yourself? If you're looking for an indicator to tell you when to buy, a buy the fucking dip indicator should do it, although it doesn't work quite as well during sideways markets but as long as you can keep holding and have income from other sources to keep buying the dips, you can't lose.
I think using the right indicator with a profitable strategy can do no harm. The chances are you end up making more profits, right?
For a beginner, indicators can be a bit tricky. You’re right with the invisible indicator thing. I started using them after a long time of trading and now I even have some favourites.
Newbies can always learn to use and practice a strategy with indicators. Anyway, what all indicators do you use?
I prefer relative strength index, moving average, MACD, etc. I've been using some low spread brokers like XM and Fxview to go with my strategies and indicators.