Author: Alan Ross

Six measured parameters for 21 indicator rules on EURUSD and gold, M5 and M15, 63,430 signals. Whipsaw and lateness repeated on every chart, the 12-bar follow-through ranked -0.66 between EURUSD M5 and gold M5, and no behaviour number kept its link to profit on all four.

9 trend rules, 5 momentum, 4 overbought/oversold oscillators and 3 breakouts on one exit. Trend rules won on gold, the oscillators ranked top on EURUSD M5 only because they lost slowest, and reversed breakouts did better in 11 of 12 runs.

21 popular indicator rules, one exit, EURUSD and gold on M5 and M15: 33,048 trades. 6 of 84 runs passed, the EMA 9/21 cross passed twice and ranked 21st of 21 on EURUSD M5, and no rule stayed in the top 10 on every chart.

ATR(5)/ATR(50) above 1 and ADX 14 above 25 compared bar by bar and as filters on EMA and MACD crosses. They barely agreed more than chance, neither picked better signals than a random cut, and ADX made EMA entries up to 0.9 ATR later.

5,201 EMA 9/21 and MACD crosses on EURUSD and gold, M5 and M15, filtered by ATR(5)/ATR(50). 1 of 32 filtered runs passed, the confirmed entries came 0.14 to 0.39 ATR later every time, and a high reading said nothing about direction.

Every MACD signal-line cross on EURUSD and gold split by side of zero and traded with the same exit. The side of zero did not decide the trade on any chart, but crosses above zero came 1.3 to 1.7 ATR later.