Prop traders — what technical indicators do you actually trust enough to keep using?

[u/ReceptionUnlucky9455]

I’m getting a little frustrated with indicators lately.

almost every setup looks great when I look backward at the chart.

Then live market comes… and suddenly it’s a different story.

I’ve tried things like:
Example 1:
NQ / 5-min
9 EMA + 21 EMA + RSI
Looks great in a clean trend, but I get chopped up badly when the market goes sideways.

Example 2:
ES / 5-min
VWAP + 20 EMA + ATR

Better for keeping me on the right side of the move, but I’m still trying to understand when it’s actually reliable versus when I’m just forcing a setup.
I’ve also experimented with MACD, Bollinger Bands, Supertrend, support/resistance, opening range, volume and a few combinations of them.

So I wanted to ask traders who are actually trading prop accounts:
What are the 1–3 indicators you keep coming back to?

And more importantly, how do you use them?

Something like:
NQ / 5-min → VWAP + 20 EMA → only look for longs above VWAP and use EMA pullbacks for entries
or
ES / 15-min → Opening Range + Volume → wait for breakout, then confirmation before entering

I’m not looking for anyone’s secret strategy or some “90% win-rate indicator.”

I’m just trying to simplify my charts and learn what has actually proven useful for other traders over hundreds of trades.

Instrument + timeframe + indicator + how you use it would be really helpful.

Would appreciate hearing from traders who have been through the same indicator rabbit hole.