Patterns - what timescale do you use?

Just reading through the tutorials. One thing became apparent whilst I was trying out some demo trades. I had no idea what timescale to use to spot patterns. I was using anywhere between 15mins down to 1 min as I was trying out short term trades to get quick profits/losses.

What’s best or does it depend on your aim? For example, you could track long term patterns but you need more time to invest for that and patterns are much harder than hourly based buy and sell aren’t they plus you have daily interest to add.

There is no such thing as a “best” timeframe to use. It depends entirely on your preference and what your system requires. Personally, I use a scalping system that requires 10 minute and daily candles. That by far works the best for me, but I have also tried other methods that use the whole range of time frames. Systems will often use a longer time frame to identify a trend, and a shorter time frame for setups.

Fibonacci, as 1 example, must operate over a longer time period than 1 miunte though? Or is the principle that there are traders operating on all different timescales so it evens out?

So, you use a shorter timescale for quick bets/investments and a daily timescale to look at overall trends? eg if you were betting on the forex for the whole day/week/month…

I guess to expand on my question, is it a bad idea to keep changing between timescales from 15mins to 1 min when looking for patterns in order to gor for a buy/sell bet? Would it be better to stick at say 10mins and monitor that all day long?

Yes, I look at the daily chart to identify overall price conditions; i.e. if price has bullish or bearish momentum, etc. But I use 10m candles to actually plan trade setups, entry and exit. There are many different systems that work that use many different time frames. Generally, I believe that the longer the time frame you are looking at, the more fundamentals come into play. I can’t claim to have much experience with fibonacci, some people swear by it, and others dismiss it as hogwash. The reason that I don’t use it is that I prefer to keep my method as simple as possible. I have found in my trading that the more I complicated the process, the worse I did.

I wouldn’t say it’s a bad idea to keep changing between time scales; I switch back and forth from the daily once or twice, but I only need to get a general idea of what price is doing on the daily time frame so that I can plan my trade accordingly on the 10m.

But it’s possible for the daily trend to be down, yet you could just wait for and play the 10m down trends every time they occur and place buy bets on these couldn’t you? In that case, it matters little what the daily movement is…
or are you saying that if the overall daily movement is down, then it would be better to only bet on sells for the whole day as these will have the greater movement on average?

Generally candlestick patterns hold more weight over larger time periods.

How come?
And what…more like 1 hr + ?

Yes. The way that I trade, if there is strong momentum in one direction or the other, I like to focus on trading with that prevailing momentum. In my experience, these are much higher probability setups.

When you are looking at daily charts and down, sure, candlestick patterns probably hold more weight. But if you are looking at larger time frames than that, at the end of the day, it is ultimately fundamentals that drive the major players in the market to load up or unload on a currency. I went short on usd a few weeks ago based on fundamentals, because I believed the dollar was going to tank again. Sure, I consulted the chart to decide on a more precise entry, but if I’m going to be in a trade for the long term, I don’t care all that much what the chart says. When taking long term trades, the fed printing a trillion dollars carries more weight in my decision making process than an area of support or resistance.

So, if the overall trend on large time frame tells you the trend is Long… and then you go back to your 10 minute, you only do Long trades??

Even if your setup tells you that there can be a Short scalp trade? You only do long trades??

Well, I will consider a short trade, especially if it appears momentum may have stalled. However, I would usually set a smaller profit target; On the flip side, if I am trading with momentum, I consider setting a more aggressive profit target.