The EMA Crossover is a textbook technical analysis strategy adapted for crypto. It uses the crossing of a fast EMA (12-period) above a slow EMA (50-period) as a trend-following entry signal, with two additional filters: MACD must confirm the direction, and ADX must be above 25 (indicating a trending market rather than a ranging one). On paper, this combination should filter out weak signals and only trade when a genuine trend is forming. In practice, on hourly candles in crypto markets, the strategy fails badly — a 39.5% win rate across 12,048 trades leading to a -73% cumulative loss. The core issue is that EMA crossovers on hourly data are inherently lagging. The fast EMA crossing the slow EMA means the trend has already been in motion for many hours. By the time the crossover occurs, much of the move has happened. The strategy then holds through the inevitable pullback, getting stopped out. The ADX filter should theoretically help by avoiding choppy markets, but ADX itself is a lagging indicator — by the time ADX rises above 25, the trend is already mature and potentially exhausted. This is a classic case of a strategy that looks good in textbooks but fails in crypto's fast-moving, mean-reverting intraday dynamics.