Hello all, first post here! I’m a few months in to trading, recently finished up The School of Pipsology. I an working on my first trading system, I am using the Moving Average Crossover system that is based on a 10 and 5 SMA, RSI and Stochastic indicators. When I was reading the rules for this system, I never saw any indication on how many time frames to use. I read in the school that using 3 time frames is a great idea before entering a trade. My current system is based on a 1 day chart as I am a swing trader. Would you recommend I use a 4 hour and 1 hour chart as well or just stick to the 1 day chart? Thank you and happy trading.
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Looking up is for confirmation
Looking down is for clarification
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Hi Joephoto
You should do your analysis on the timeframe (tf) you are trading in.
Use a higher tf to get your bias to either go long or short and a lower tf for better entry.
As for which tf to trade in, that depends on your lifestyle and how much time are you willing to commit to be looking at charts.
I trade daily tf as well. Closer to end of month like this week, it’s good to take a look at monthly charts for some bias to either go long or short. I don’t usually go down to H1 or H4 for entry. But that’s because I prefer entering at market. At times where a stop or limit order is needed, I’ll take a quick look. In the end, it’s about how much time you can afford in front of the charts.
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Hello and welcome!
I trade mostly EOD myself, entering off the Daily. I’d always recommend looking a couple of TFs either side of any Entry chart, as it never hurts to get some extra context, and it can be amazing the way things become obvious when compared against other TFs. They all reflect the same Price, after all, so the data should not leave you conflicted. Personally, I always look at the Weekly and the Monthly for some reassurance that Price is not stuck on some seriously major level - even a good looking setup can reverse if Price is near a big extreme. I’d also then look at the 240 and the Hourly to understand where Price is on its cycle. You might see a nice trend, for instance, on the 240, which tells you that Price is due to retrace - that might even give you a more elegant, efficient Entry, or perhaps invalidate your setup. If the Hourly and 240 have both been showing a range for several days, that is relevant to your chances of expecting a realistic Daily movement - sometimes a setup which looks great on the Daily will simply retrace and Stop you straight out, for a reason which was predictable on another TF. So I’ll always scan for setups on the Daily, build my case (Fib, RSI, S&R levels etc) on the Daily, set my Entry and provisional TP on the Daily, but consult the other TFs as they might clarify my thinking.
(And FWIW and not to mess with your strategy I personally wouldn’t bother with RSI and Stochastic on the same chart, as they are such a similar indicator that they aren’t amplifying the picture as much as they appear - they can often be evidence for one another rather than evidence for the setup. Also not good to have too much of the Price screen obscured by things other than the chart. I use RSI as one of my basket of reasons, but don’t bother with Stoch).
ST
Please, don’t mind mate! Don’t depend on only indicator based trading system! It’s not enough here; learn market chart & fundamental analysis.
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