Basic Technical Analysis From The Butcher, page-11

Regarding Averages: My standard set is a 20,50, and a 200. I've used at other points a 5, 15 and 50 also. The common pair for exp. averages is 12 and 26 I think.

Dont take me as a jedi master that you should follow. You have your own history, background and way of framing the world so play around with different setups until you find something you like. You may not like bollinger bands and may want to use something else as an indicator. MACD is a common one, but its not for me.

The 200MA works well for CTM, go have a look at some of my posts in that chart forum. Just because the price action is no where near an average it doesnt mean it becomes irrelevant. In the case of the 200MA, the further it gets away from that line, the stronger the trend is becoming, and the more likely it becomes it will return to the average. Nothing heads in one direction forever. You can actually put bollinger bands on a 200MA or any other for that matter, its just that the 20MA seems to work best for them, but again, experiment. Everything I've put up here is just my interpretation of things and you may find in your experience that its all less than helpful.

Nothing that you have read here is going to make any sense until you have been using it all for at least a month or so.

Its been a long time since I was on night shift and its rare to here of guys who actually use their time there to learn news things rather than spending the night looking at cat videos. Good on you mate, you're on the right track.