Thanks, Dave, for a very helpful MACD post. As I was telling Michael, over on my other system here I'm experimenting with various values of MACD, and seeing how they certainly do yield different entry points (I'm focusing now just on entry, but, of course, exit points are also different, depending on the parameters).
What I was particularly wondering was whether 'times have changed' over the past few years, so that the traditional MACD 12,26,9 is no longer considered as the 'standard.'
In fact, MSWin doesn't even allow one to input a different value into the built-in MACD function! That says tons about 12,26,9 being the standard. And its rare to even find mention of a different MACD value in various TA books from five to ten years ago.
But I'm wondering still if 'times have changed,' and the traditional 12,26,9 is just no longer THE one.
Incidentally, following up on Michael's 'test-it-out' advice, there can be the problem of MACD 'optimizing' for the particular stock, based on the past, so that one thinks that some other value may serve better, but you've fallen into the trap of optimizing for a stock, or a few stocks, and your 'new' MACD values may still get you in trouble trading in the broader market. |
