Hey mike, I use macd 5,13,1 as a simple crossing system, 5,13 is out signal but 9 is the moving average of 5,13 oscillator which we don't use therefore I set it on 1.
It is the same as when you have EMA 5 cross EMA 13 on your chart but Histograms are easier to spot for me.
When macd crosses over 0 level I go long provided that price is also above 50 EMA and vice versa for shorts. 50 ema and 150 ema and 600 ema greatly filters fake signals i.e you don't go short when macd 5,13 crossess down but price remains above 50 ema. It is simple but needs little experience to ignore some fake signals.
If you can spot hidden and classic divergences the you will be able to catch nearly all moves in the market.
Bollinger bands can act as a very good target but sometimes price goes way above or below the bands so if you close the trade when it touches the bands you will probably miss some green pips and most of times some major green pips because the trens has just started to run when it touches the bands. For this you gotta master PA to idetify whether price is going to continue or reverse from there although it is touching bands or is beyond it. Again it needs experience.
This system seem quite simple and handy for me but didn't happen overnight. I traded it almost 9 months to master it.