I know that I will be castigated here but I only trade 5min and 1min charts. I see it said many times that the lower timeframes are noise, so to illustrate the assertion that ‘there is no such thing’ I would invite sceptics to take a good look at this afternoons DAX. On the 1 minute chart two beautiful little trends with more than 30pips each, while the 5min and upward appear in chaos.
I wouldn’t even call this scalping !
Can you see yourself in five years time still trading 1 minute charts -or will you be financially free?
I think the point here is what does one call a trend. I am sure few would doubt that one can find times where there is a tradeable move on any timeframe. But would we call a period of 30, even 60, candles on a 1-min chart a “trend”?
And whilst it is possible to find such moves on a 1-min chart, especially when the market is otherwise drifting or directionless, is it possible to trade it consistently over a long period of time without a sense of underlying direction?
In my opinion, trend trading and trading the 1-min chart are very different concepts. Both are possible, at least in theory, but are apples and oranges.
The “noise” referred to by traditional trend traders are precisely these ups and downs that become visible (and a distraction) on very short term charts but that get swallowed up into invisibility inside the longer term candles, leaving a better picture of the underlying trend.
This does not mean 1-min charts are “wrong” to use - they are just different.
But that’s just my opinion 
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Short time-frames are called noise due their failure in reliably identifying many kinds of chart pattern or candlestick pattern.
Chart patterns come from D1 studies and they often take many days to develop and complete: this makes e.g. head-and-shoulders a nonsense sub-D1.
Also, these studies have also usually been done on markets with an overnight closed session: sub-D1 time-frame charts inherently have no deliberate gaps, so e.g. this makes any candlestick pattern depending on a gap pretty unreliable, such as engulfing candles.
Just another two reasons to add to the list why forex trading is so often a disaster for many otherwise good traders.
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This is a very relevant comment. The dissection of intraday price movement into a successive string of evenly-spaced time segments bears little relationship to the price movement itself. For example, they do not even follow trading sessions, etc.
The very fact that we mostly only talk of 4-hourly, hourly, 15m, 5m, etc is only due to the fact that many platforms only provide these alternatives. It may just as well by 2.5 hours, or 37 mins. But the fact that market participants can only use the time intervals provided means that most traders are looking at, and setting their decisions by, precisely these given time divisions, which creates a certain degree of self-fulfillment in itself due to this concentration of decision-making around these time interval changeovers. But the underlying trend itself in the market direction is not affected specifically by an intraday time interval.
The daily/weekly charts are different in that they exclude the daytraders and so the daily close is a more significant indication of what the market is doing.
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strictly speaking, there’s no such thing as “noise” on any chart
every tick represents a transaction
“noise” is just a description used by people who prefer trading from slower charts, that implies a criticism of people who prefer trading from faster charts
and you’d be right, because it isn’t “scalping”
that’s right
some people forget that a “trend” can only be defined with reference to the time frame in which it exists
a trend on a 1-minute chart is no different in its construction and in its reality from a trend on a 4-hour chart
we should call it “a trend on a 1-minute time frame”
just like we should call the same thing on a 4-hour chart “a trend on a 4-hour time frame”
they’re the same in that both can either match or mismatch simultaneous trends on slower and on faster charts
the people who call the fast one “noise” are just making the mistake of imagining that it’s inherently less reliable
that may be “inherent” to their perspective, but that’s just because their perspective is one arising from having to trade from slower charts
i think you mean to imply “without matching the trend in a higher time frame”?
“long” is subjective
a trend on a 1-minute time frame compares with 15-second and a 5-minute charts just like a trend on a 4-hour time frame compared with 1-hour and 1-day charts
neither is inherently “better” or “worse” than the other, though different ones suit different people
it depends what suits you
that’s not my opinion at all
let’s not forget that the majority of professional, institutional traders are making their livings by trading mostly from charts much faster than 1-minute, (and that’s factual, not “opinion” at all!)
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Yes it is precisely that: a description used by people who trade from longer term TFs. But it does not imply in any way a criticism of those preferring faster charts. It only describes a disturbance or distraction away from the move that one is focusing on in the longer TF.
In the same a 1-min trader may find it disturbing their focus if they watched their 1-min move on a tick chart.
There is nothing personal in it. At least not from me 