Does anyone trade off of the 5 minute chart?

I’m more of a long term trader and I was just playing around on a demo account with a 5 minute chart and seemed to do pretty well. I know it can’t be this easy. What are the downsides and advantages of trading such a short time frame?

I used to scalp on a 5 minute chart using only a 20ema, when price is trending higher highs, lower lows… buy or sell using the 20ema as support and a trigger. Target 10 to 20 pips.

Problem is I usually give everything back at the end, never been able to know when to stop… trends are hard to manage on such a short time frame because they change so frequently

There’s much better ways to trade, but it does seem to keep me entertained :slight_smile:

Bobia, I think the difference lies in the experience of trading long term and trading short term. There is a difference between the experience that you get from each one, even if the program you’re having is just the same. Try to play around for a longer time and perhaps you’ll feel the difference.

I like to trade the 5 min when my ADHD kicks in and I need to be entertained and occupied. If I’m going to trade the 5M I start by looking at the H1 to get a feel for the general direction we’re headed in that day and then move down the charts untill I’m ready to go with the 5M.

Now I do a few things that many poo poo on these boards, but it works out swimmingly for me. I never place a stop loss as I’m watching the market myself so I dont need a babysitter and I’ve entered the market somewhere in the middle of the high and low range for the past 30 minutes to hour. If my trade starts to go south on me I simply ride it our and wait for the trend reversal and place another trade at the reversal. Some call this averaging but really I;m just catching the trend up at a better position then my first trade which is still open. I’ve never had to close a trade on a loss this way. And all my trades are for 30 pips in the 5min chart.

Hope this helps. :wink:

I use the 5min to time my entry after I’ve looked at the 1hr and 15min charts.

It’s essential for my trading style.

I trade the 5m chart, however receive all confirmation off the 1HR chart.

I use the 5m chart to see market microstructure.

What do you mean by “market microstructure”?

means looking at the “details”

I saw someone saying they use a 20 EMA for 5 minute charts. Is there anyone here who uses 2 EMA lines and wait for crossovers + signals from 15, 30 mins or 1 hour charts for trend confirmations? If there is someone who does that, could you please share how you trade and how profitable it is? Thank you :slight_smile:

I now trade on the M5 exclusively. I use price action only. Don’t care about fundamentals, don’t care about news, and don’t care about the higher timeframe trends. I look to be in and out with 30 minutes and only target 20-24 pips.

Yes Patr8der the details is what I am interested in.

I like to be right on time to the move, so if I am zoomed in and I begin to see a Rounded Top, Bottom, or H&S forming in the 5 min chart, it provides additional edge.

Zooming in also helps me to keep risk smaller I have found. There was a time in the past, where I would put my stop at the bottom or top of the previous 4 HR candle, but now I can see where that was taking too much risk.

I think the distinction can be found in the encounter of dealing lengthy lasting and dealing temporary. There is a distinction between the encounter that you get from each one, even if the system you’re having is just the same. Try to perform around more some time to perhaps you’ll experience the distinction.

Forex trading reviews
Forex brokers

Yep, I trade 5m charts every day, along with 1hr, 4hr and dailies.

I actually share some examples in my thread Forex Price Action of some live trades I took which you can take a look at (white charts in the thread).

Feel free to take a look and ask what questions you may.

Kind Regards,
Chris

My head will explode if trade on m5 tf. °=°

I do look at M5 chart’s for entries. Analysis is done on the longer time frame’s though.

IMO as newbie you should start with long timeframe atleast daily after you can make consisten profit then you can start to drilling short time frame, hope this make sense

I have an experience using 1m chart for EA. The result is bad. I’m losing my money. So my advice is only using minimum 1h chart to watch the market trend.

I trade the M5 exclusively. I may check the daily to get a “feel” for which way the market will be likely to trend but it’s not really important. Generally the lower the time frame the more entries the market will print per day i.e. the M3 will print more entries than the M15. This means more losers as well as more winners though remember! Also your SL will have to be wider and therefore your position size smaller to keep the dollar risk the same.

Let’s say (for an easy example) your strategy is to trade one-bar reversals (a.k.a. hammer/pin/kangaroo tail etc) at resistance levels. Your SL would have to be just below/above the tail (a.k.a wick/shadow), right? Well on the M5 the bar might be 150-200 pips tall so you could trade one lot (10,000) and your risk would be $150-$200, but on the D1 chart the bar could be like 1000 pips tall so your position size would have to be much smaller to keep your dollar risk the same! Make sense?

Also, in the above example, on the M5 one would only have to wait like half an hour to see if the trade worked out and started moving the right way, whereas on the D1 you could be still sitting there like two weeks later waiting to see if you were going to make a profit!

For these reasons I can recommend PRACTISING trading on the M5 or M15 time frames.

Like others on this thread, I try to use longer time frames but I do use the 1m and 5m time frames if I am watching a piece of news coming on air, and want to see the market’s reaction to that; sometimes this will mean that I decide to jump in after the news fade (=first four 5m candles), or sometimes it just means that it confirms the general trend. I always zoom out, even on the 5m chart, however, because there may be a small resistance level just a few hours before; I then confirm that with, say, a 4H chart, and eventually return to the 5m to get the best entry.

I definitely think that there is nothing like the 5m and 1m time frames to get an immediate feel for market reaction to news items…

Nice/useful thread. Thank you.

I think scalping is a very profitable trading method. Grabbing 5 to 10 pips per day with a high leverage could be very lucrative. I use the 5mins chart often and I am very good with it.