55 21 EMA cross, speeding it up

Hello.

I use a 55 and 21 EMA, and when they cross i buy/sell. I use a 150 EMA for trend. I also use a MACD with settings 5, 50, 10.

My EMA cross however comes about 5 candles and 25 pips too late.

If i reduce the 55 and 21 it will slightly speed it up.

However it will be more volatile to false signals i assume, so is there anything better i can use to show changes in trend.

Thank you.

Do you have a MT4 platform?

If so, try right clicking on the MA to bring up the properties box. Then select “Linear Weighted” in the MA method drop down box. This tightens the MAs closer to the candles.

Hello Lord, to start trying to read and do school pipsolie.
As for ADM 50 and 21, put them on a daily chart, euro / usd for example, and look what is happening:D

I’ll generally agree with didilut on this one. I’ve tried every combination I could think of, moving the indicator from the close to the weighted close, using linear weighted or ema, shorter ma periods, multiple MA’s and scaling into and out of trades based on multiple crosses. The fact is, anything you do will only give you marginal improvement in the indicator. Indicators lag and that’s their nature. The good news as Didilut has pointed out, when you move to much longer timeframes, like the daily, a little lag doesn’t matter that much. Then you only have to worry about consolidation whipsaws. It’s always something. Happy trading.

If price is making higher highs and higher lows, it’s trending up
If price is making lower highs and lower lows, it’s trending down
If price is making lower highs and higher lows, it’s consolidating
If price is making higher highs and lower lows, then this is actually a series of really fast trend changes, aka “fakeouts”

problem is that this is all timeframe dependent! So you have to be a little omniscient across all the timeframes if you want a genuine picture of how price is trending :slight_smile:

Ahhhhhhh…

Moving averages.

I love 'em.

So many ways to use creatively use them.

A little hint.
You’re trading the wrong cross;)

What do you mean im trading the wrong cross?

And thanks for other help guys. :slight_smile:

lorddan01,

Moving averages are fine for determining trend but fall short for entries and exits. The 55-21 cross you are using is a very broad paint brush and you’re getting just what you’re asking for in using it for entries and exits.

Try studying Support and Resistance like the Linear Regression Channels, Bollinger Bands, Trendlines and Fibs. Some use these as well as a cross such as the 3-EMA / 5 SMA for confirmation. Just remember the bigger the numbers the later you are to the dance. If your numbers are too big you will only have ugly girls to pick from buy the time you get there. LOL.

As far as the comment “a little lag doesn’t matter much on the Daily” I will remind you that those Daily High to Low bars are a bunch of pips. Losing the opportunity at the entry and staying to late for the exit is a small fortune. 5 bars X 2 = 10 bars wasted. 50 pips x 10 bars = 500 pips. A lot of trends aren’t even this long.

Make your entries and exits on the lower timeframes such as the M5. I use the M1 and cannot understand why anybody would use anything much larger. By the time you see the move on the Daily it’s already too late.

Happy trading,

Johnny