Trading the crossover - do you wait for the candle to close before buying?

[thegoatiest]

Hello,

I'm trying out trading the crossover strategy on the hourly chart.
I'm wandering - do you buy immediately the second the crossover of the moving averages takes place, or do you wait for the hour candle to close to 'confirm' the crossover first?
Today, it was crossing over, then crossing back and 'undoing' the crossover .... all within the same candle.
I've noticed this happens a lot.

When you look back in hindsight you can see: 'Well, the crossover didn't happen there, the moving averages were parallel and moving along side each-other but they didn't actually cross.'
However during the formation of that hourly candle - it did crossover, then under, then over e.t.c.

So should you wait for a candle to close - printing the crossover?
Only problem i can see with this; Is when a successful crossover takes place it often starts with a GIANT green candle, substantially increasing your risk should the crossover fail, and reducing profits too.
But maybe that's worth it to avoid getting 'faked' or whipsawed in and out of the crossover...

What's the right way to do this?
thanks.
TG

[GreatArkansas]

It is really proper way to wait for the candle to close whether it's under or above the MA.
For what I observed of using MA in a short time frame is difficult, you need also to consider the higher time frame when doing this because it can be a fake breakout, also sometimes you need more time since you are waiting to close and waiting it crosses on MA.

[Lakai01]

I traded a lot back in 2017, using various strategies. To summarize my experience: Its most of the time pure luck when you trade at the hourly chart and it doesnt really matter if you wait for the candle to close or not. Its more or less pure gambling.
Especially the crypto market is way more unpredictable that eg. the classic stock market. Best chances to win money on the hourly chart following strategies of common bots, they are predictable and always act the same!

[maxreish]

Actually, i am not relying with the candles if we will enter before it close or not. If you are gonna search for some indicators, it provides on when is the intact or the right time to enter and to exit the trades. Try to use AO oscillator or stoch RSI. I'm using that two indicators to enter and to exit in my trades. However, you can't just rely in an hourly tf. You can confirm and look for the good entry from different timeframes. As a swing trader, i rely mostly in 4hr tf, 1d tf and confirms it in some shorter tf.