So, I’m completely new to this Forex stuff, only done a handful of trading on Metatrader demo, read through most of the stuff on this site and various others, but still have no real idea what I’m doing.
At the moment, I’m trying to decide what time frame to trade on. I’m very inclined to do short term daytrading–maybe even as low as 5 minute/1 minute. The main reasons are A. I have a lot of time, and all of my hobbies are on the computer anyway–I don’t do the whole social life thing ^^. and B. I figure shorter time frames would be easier to learn due to sheer volume of practice. I know in less than an hour whether I made a mistake.
My question is, is it viable to start with 1-30 minute charts, or are time frames that small used almost exclusively to help confirm trends noted in the longer periods? Also, are there any common TA methods (I’ve mostly used candlesticks, stochastics, MACD, and RSI) that happen to fail miserably on short periods? Or any methods that are particularly strong? I’ve heard claims that candlesticks are notably worse on short periods, but I’ve also heard claims that they’re just as strong.
One thing I’ve noticed a lot in the pro/cons list of various methods is stuff like “works even without staring at your computer screen all day!”. I have to stress that this is not an issue for me, I would be staring at that screen anyway, so a method thats reliant on paying close attention to it throughout the day is not really an issue.
Any insights on the viability of trading on 1-30 minute charts would be greatly appreciated. Oh, also, I’m currently planning to focus exclusively on the EUR/USD pair, so any thoughts on whether thats a good idea would be great.
You seem to be on the right lines, from your position
you should be able to cover all eventualities, just
keep reading, demoing & testing out various systems
until you find the set-up which is right for you.
You will find that in this business there are always
diverse views, what is okay for one trader is not okay
for another & vice versa.
Take a trip through the 2 threads below, enlightening.
http://forums.babypips.com/free-forex-trading-systems/2950-40-100-pips-per-day-live-trading.html
http://forums.babypips.com/free-forex-trading-systems/6632-alternative-technical-templates.html
Also, check out the whole “Holy Grails” area of the forums. I’m sure you’ll find a system that will work for you. Reading through all the info. and the endless amount of advice through these forums, you’ll eventually set up your own system and routine that works for you.
I’m very new too and have been researching for 3 months and demoing for about 2 trying different systems and a routine that works for me. My situation is similar to yours as I’m in front of the computer all day as well. Finding this site and everything in these forums is probably the best thing you could do. So many helpful people and great information.
I’ll link a system that I really enjoy and that works for me. I use it on the 30m charts as that is whats recommended, but that works well for me. I found that I don’t enjoy any lower time frame as they jump around too much in such a short time. Like trying to catch a frog thats on speed covered in Crisco. I’ve been finding my trading style in just a short time by trying out different systems.
So take a look at this one as well as the one daydreamer65 posted and you’ll get started right away. Good luck to ya!
http://forums.babypips.com/show-me-money-daytrading/1109-ema-step-system.html