Hello! Newbie here on his way along with the school of Pipsology. So while I’m doing the course (which is awesome that something like that is free! Will definitely donate some % of my profits if I make any) I’m also trading on a demo account and I’m at the stage where I’m learning about trends, resistance and support levels, etc. I can see a trend if I have a candlestick for every minute of live trading and see another if a candlestick represents an hour, day or month. So my question is what is the optimal candlestick size that I should be looking for?
Start with daily and work towards shorter time-frames when you’ve mastered your strategy and are making consistent returns.
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You’ll need to study candlesticks. But to answer your question, in an upward trend the candlesticks (on any time frame) should be making higher highs and higher lows - and vice versa in a downward trend.
Imagine the candlestick being your thumb with a tiny wick sprouting out at the top and the bottom.
That’s an ideal candle to maintain the trend. Any other shapes and sizes are warning signals that the trend is being challenged.
Look up Tom Hougaard The Trading Manual - on the Internet. He’ll send an excellent free course by email which contains candlestick explanations.
Time frames depend upon the trading style… If you practicing scalping go for the shortest time frames, but if you are practicing long term trades, you should go with higher time frames.
Thank you for your answers, I will take them into account. Still at the beginning of my Forex adventure so maybe in the future things will be clearer.
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You are most welcome… All the best
For scalping one can go for short timeframes like 1min and 5 mins. for long one can use the hourly, daily charts.
You should start with higher time frames like daily ones and when you feel that you have mastered using them, you can go for the shorter ones also.
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I have tried using different types of charts in the past but none of them worked as well as the candlestick charts for me. They help me determine the current state of the market at a glance. It’s just the color and length of the pattern that I need to have knowledge about.
I have been using the M15 and the M30 charts for my trades.
I have tried trading using smaller time frames but I ended up confusing myself. So, I always use higher time frames to avoid the noise that smaller time frames can have. But yes, sometimes, smaller time frames are needed when you are using a short-term trading strategy like scalping.