I think for me, moving averages has to be the worst indicator for moving forward. Unless used as just a filter i think its very scary to optimize moving averages and using them/it as a trigger for entering a trade. Also i have noticed that 2018 has been an EXTREMLY shitty year for moving averages and macds and everything in that area. There has been some huge selloff-dips. Ive had many algos taking trades because they think the market is hitting a bottom, just to plummet further down.. Many false signals and false breakouts and instant down 5% the next candle lol. So i wouldnt be too quick to judge a system as a bad system if its just been acting up lately. But yea moving averages as triggers for entry/exit is not deemed safe in my playbook.

Also ive found that if a system looks great in backtest but going forward in demo it just looks like instant shit => That is 9/10 times me curvefitting my system. The last 1/10 is a good system that is just having a really rough time when u activate it.. I managed to activate 10 systems the day b4 the october crash lol. Did not look good going 1-2 weeks into that one..