Hey Guys,
So when analyzing a 4hr or 1 hr chart how much data is relevant to a day trader (holding positions for max 1-3 days)?
Most platforms for a 4hr chart would give a month worths of data on the screen, is all of that valid for shorter term traders? i have been reading/hearing conflicting theories on this.
Thanks 
Personally, Iād want at least 10 years data. This depends how serious you want to be within testing. Anything under a year though is no use to anyone, regardless of the trading approach.
Edit: sorry, are we talking about back testing? Or rather the data which you can actually fit on your screen in one go?
I [I][U]think[/U][/I] weāre talking about āhow far back you need to look, to set up your charts for trading, e.g. how far back to look at levels of support and resistanceā, arenāt we? :33:
On that basis ā¦
Not sure, because I donāt trade that sort of time-frame. Maybe a month or a month and a half, together with a very generalised overview of a longer period than that?
Donāt take this as a āreliable answerā! Iām guessing, to some extent, and opinions are surely going to vary, too.
But anyway my initial āofferā is āa month or a month and a halfā, and letās see who agrees/disagrees with it (my guess is that more people will think Iāve [I]under[/I]estimated than that Iāve [I]over[/I]estimated, but like everything else around here, thatās going to depend on who replies, isnāt it? 
)
(Iāve also assumed weāre talking about forex, here, not stocks/commodities etc.)
Hey guys,
Yeah my question was more for day to day analyzing to set up a trade rather than for back testing (although I appreciate the info for back testing, I am gonna need it soon)
For this question the reason for my asking is I am trying to understand how relevant is a month old or 2 month old trend/support level for a trade I am going to make today? (Short term trade on a 4hr chart)
Just like EMA is more recent data like 1week or 2 weeks more relevant?
Scenario: month long trend is down, but last week it has been going up. So should I consider a long or short position? I know ofc more goes into deciding which position to take, I am just trying to understand in this context. 
No.
(Again, Iām guessing because I donāt do 1-3-day trades, but if I did, Iād probably want the week-long and month-long trends to match, I think. Those would perhaps be my ātwo higher time-framesā to confirm the trend, and give me a directional bias about which trades to be looking for.)
Overall, I think so, yes (just like more recent S/R tends to be more relevant, when youāre looking at S/R). There can be exceptions though (just as with S/R: a level very frequently touched/rejected, longer ago, [I]can[/I] still turn out to be more significant).
The kind of time-frames youāre looking at can involve āfundamentalsā, too, which is why Iām slightly nervous of answering, because thatās not exactly my [I]forte[/I]. :8:
As a rough and ready rule how about if your maximum ālook-backā period is 6-12 times your maximum holding period? Thatās about what I have - I hadnāt quantified this into numbers before but it seems right. I donāt trade for max 3 days, my max would be about 4 weeks, average 2 - and the data I want from charts is all within the last 6 months. That said, I use the 200EMA as a reference and that obviously is calculated from further back than 6mths, but Iām not looking at the TA as such over 6mths ago.
Personally, I think trying to quantify by ātimeā is the wrong approach.
Price levels that are of importance are not justified by how recent they were formed, but more so if they have held ground.
If youāre asking this question because youāre trying to zone in on āwhat really mattersā then I understand.
However, by zoning in too much you will miss the bigger picture.
If you are an intraday trader, I think data for the last month will be the best for identify the trend and place an order. However, itās worth to mention that for taking the big picture of the currency you can have a look at long-term timeframes.