What a golden cross represents is that the market has been trending up more in the past 50 days on average than it has for the past 200 days. The reason a golden cross always precedes a big bull run is because ... well it just has to because a bull run means we're trending up more than we have been.

It's a bullish signal, and it means that we have the right market conditions to potentially see a bull run. Which is why it has the psychological effect of making traders more bullish and more likely to hold or FOMO than to sell.

There's no need to deal in absolutes, it's an indicator of a potential occurrence and it is still a bullish signal whether there's been a drop in the short-term. In fact, often there is a drop immediately after a golden cross only for it to recover and go on to put in new all time highs.

So basically, don't put too much faith in things like this, but don't discount it as completely useless either.