Hi everyone, I am a newbie and still studying and collecting information about forex. I have seen you guys saying that ’ I use 30 minutes charts to trade for 4 hrs or use 4 hrs chart for day trade’ can anyone please explain that to me what does that mean? how do u trade on one hour chart or 4 hour or anytime frame for that matter. Thanx in advance!
hey,
To me…I generally trade on a M15 chart if I am going to keep a close eye on my trades for a few hours.
You can also trade on a H1 or H4 basis if you feel like leaving it for the night.
make sure when you set up a stop loss or take profit to leave plenty of pip room in case the market trend decides to do jumping jacks 
One would use the lower time frames in order to better choose an entry point for a trade.
Then, once the trade is entered, it’s back to the longer time frames to monitor it.
Do you have a practice account set up yet? If you look at candlestick charts, a new candlestick forms every 15 minutes, or hour or 4 hours, depending on which you select. If you compare these different time frames and watch them, you will see that the lower time frames are best for a short trade. 4 hour charts show longer duration trends and are better for trades you plan to hold for a longer period of time.
Glad we agree? … I thought it was the other way around… lol. If it works for you Master Tang… I ain’t gonna knock it. 
Did you mean look to the longer TF’s for an impending trade and enter on the lower TF? 
Yes, exactly what I meant.
Which is why I said [B]back to the higher time frames to monitor the trade[/B].
I took the initial post to mean the OP was already looking at the longer time frames from the start, and looking for an explanation as to why one would look at the 4H chart, then trade off the 30M.
I coulda explained it better I guess…
Thanks for seein’ through my idiocy!
LOL… I don’t think thats an accurate description of M Tang! Just was confused as to what you meant. TY for clearing it up… thought no less.
Thats what I have trouble with, working out how much pip room to allow for, on the timeframe my trade is.
I heard or read onetime (no idea where) that the bigger the timeframe the more you need to allow for pip room to breath.
So how much room should you allow?
Thanks
There will never be a set amount.
The chart should tell you where you should put your stop loss.
Sometimes it only needs to be 20 pips on a 4 hour chart, sometimes it needs to be 100 on a 1 hour chart.
Your stop loss will also determine your lot size as well.
You’ll find they go hand in hand with a solid money management plan.
Unless your already trading the longer TF’s and have factored in your lot size accordingly I would suggest you exit a trade before hitting the hay for the night. If your States side and trading the Asian, leaving a trade to run overnight you best be an early riser. The London open can swing a trade big time in the other direction to say nothing of when New York opens.
I get that it is never a set amount.
The problem is that I have put on a trade and have not allowed enough room for it and get stopped out at the sl I have set and after that it rises to the amount I believed it would reach.
Post a chart with a trade on it that you got stopped out on.
I’m pretty sure I can help you solve your problem:)
The Asian is the slowest (aside from quite time… NY close to the Asian) and is perhaps the hardest to quantify… if you can stay awake… lol… UK perspective.
Seriously if your up by 5 pips… take it and run! There was a thread we had going a while back… can’t remember the name… but some notable names here on BP were in for the ride. Almost every time they got hit. Not because it was a bad strat… simply because they would set their SL from the high/ low of the Asian and take a punt on which way it would go on the London open? NOT A GOOD IDEA… unless you plan to monitor watch.
Hi Master Tang,
Thank you for your help.
I’m not real good at saving and editing images.
Oanda doesn’t seem to have a save image option (if someone knows, pls let me know).
So I cant seem to find the one I was thinking of, so a hypothetical will have to do.
Buy at blue dot, stopped out at redline and yellow line where I expected it to go (or near there).
If this doesn’t help, let me know and I will make sure next time this problem happens I will make sure to make a capture of it and I’ll contact you.
It doesn’t happen often, but when it does its annoying, because you work out where you think it will end up but because you haven’t allowed enough room for movement you get stopped.
You get the idea I’m sure.
Thanks
First off, what was your buy signal? Tough situation in that retrace.
On the pic, I’ve circled a few things as you were trading in a point of congestion. There was a previous retrace as price was moving up to the left, and if you had placed your stop just under that, you would have had a successful trade. Those points of support and resistance will serve you far better than trying to get a stop just based off of a stop loss to profit ratio.
All we have to go with for these things is what has happened in the past:)
Thank you for your kind assistance Master Tang, I really appreciate it.
I probably didn’t choose a good example.
However, I do get what you are saying, does make sense.
Looks like I need to plot and draw more support and resistance lines on my charts, its just that I am operating on a small screen (on my laptop) at the moment and all screen space is at a premium and sometimes I find the more lines and things drawn on the charts gets a bit messy!
Can’t wait until I finish building my trading computer!
Thanks again
You don’t need to get too carried away. Too many lines can get confusing. Just pay attention to your zones of interest.
The only question I still have is what were your thoughts on a buy at that point?
Nothing wrong with snagging a few pips up on a downtrend at all, just interested in your perspective:)
I was probably drawing the support and resistance lines mentally, the support somewhere near where you put your yellow line and circle just to the left of my entry (blue dot) and thought ok maybe its time for it to go up and see if I can grab a couple pips.
Though I have read and been told that what goes down in forex does not have to go back up (Mark at piphut).
That image probably doesn’t conform to my entry requirements.
I’ll be sure to take images more often.
Moving down to smaller time frames just gives you a closer look at the market. You can find a good entry that way and then go back up to the longer TF. or teh other way around to see teh longer time frame trend.
best
Matt