Hi,
I saw people trading 1-minute trades, 1 hour, for days, etc.
My question what time frame is most popular among good traders?
This is highly dependent on trading strategy. Obviously short-term day trading strategies tend to favor shorter periods and swing/long-term trades will often observe longer timeframes. It goes beyond that, though. Some indicators and strategies will take into account values from different time frames to correlate and make a decision. Sometimes a longer period will be checked to confirm a trend seen on a shorter period. Thereās all kinds of things that are possible. How many pips is your trading strategy looking for? How long do you intend to hold the position? It varies based on all kinds of stuff. Hope thatās somewhat helpful.
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The 1-minute time frame is fun to watch. Small timeframes are a microcosm of what the larger timeframes are doing. If you want to see how the market moves overall, watch the 1-minute for an hour. But I would not trade it.
The minimum scalp in forex is 10 pips. You would be hard-pressed to find a candle under the 1-hour timeframe in a major pair worth more than that. In other words, a 15-minute to 1-hour timeframe in forex would be the minimum I would try to scalp with.
You can certainly swing a 5-minute chart, but you have the same problem as with higher timeframes. Forex swing trades are rare since the market is 80% ranging. So you wind up scalping the 5-minute chart, and that is virtually impossible.
My advice is to get comfortable taking scalps once in a while on different time frames 15 minutes and above. Experiment with very small position sizes. Get good at scalping so that you can transition to a full-time trader if thatās what you want to do.
Long answer short, you can swing any timeframe, but the scalping minimum is probably 15 minutes to 1 hour timeframe.
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My good friend @steveeppersonis so wrong in many of his statements here its difficult to know where to start.
If you want fun go down to tick charts. However ticks are heavily filtered by your broker so one must find a chart that works for you.
No they are not. The market consist of a number of investors covering a large number of investment horizons. The larger the number of investors, the more horizons covered the more liquidity is provided for the market and the more stable the market becomes.
Information is valued by investors differently according to their investment horizon therefore the diffusion of information becomes uneven making the system inherently complex. Information more related to market sentiment and technical factors dominate short term horizons while longer term fundamental information dominate larger horizons.
In the event that something occurs (ie an election) that puts the validity of fundamental information, long term investors either withdraw from the market or invest in shorter terms thus making the market unstable.
So at the end price is then reflective of a combination of short term technicals and long term fundamental valuations and thus short term price movements will be more volatile than long term movements and more likely to be the result of crowd behaviour.
Now we as speculators need volatility to make money. How you determine what timeframe to trade from will depend on your investment horizon thus how you profit from that volatility
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Scalping by definition is crossing the spread and taking profits. Scalpers place hundreds of trades daily and pure scalping is completely out of the realm of the retail trader. Enough said about that.
Wrong again. Markets donāt range. They either go up or the go down. There is no exception. Understanding that opens opportunity for for the astute daytrader. Swing trading is a more mid term investment horizon and therefore requires a higher time frames (4hr, daily).
So to @dusandjuric
It solely depends on what your investment horizon is. Has what Iāve posted help, probably not. But it should get you questioning what your needs and goals are and therefore not worry about what others are doing and why they do it.
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If you want lots of stress, back ache, constant fear of losses, whipsawing price action, playing whack a mole all for tiny rewards for the risk taken you should use lower timeframes
If you want to go about your day not having to look at charts so much, all in the knowledge your trades are working, and are in alignment with a larger macro picture, not too mention high rewards for the risk taken (if you know stop management) then stick to daily charts
Of course Iām being slight sarcastic ( itās not just @therealInsideBar who can write like that), but there is truth in what I say.
Iāll get abuse from the successful day traders on Babypips (they do exist), but for beginners at least better stick to higher timeframes - at least 4 hour chart, preferably 8 hour or daily
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There is indeed. The first part of my journey I held Bob Volman as my lord and saviour but it was completely nuts trading of tick charts for small return. This time around I want a stress free (if there is such a thing in speculating) environment and diversifying more over asset classes making decisions based on multiple time frames (daily, 8hr,2hr charts) entering from the 3min chart looking to let trades run for longer.
Iām also a big fan of algos but I am finding that if I take the time to identify opportunities then filter for the best set up my hit rate has improved. It is early and Iāve only been back for a little over a month so time will tell if this new approach work better for me. Key words - for me.
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I truly believe that inside bars are the keys to the kingdom.
Traded correctly itās low risk high rewards. Whatās not to like?
But the masses will carry on with the multiple time frame, multiple trend line, and multiple S&R
Because theyve been led to believe trading needs to be complex
I stay away from intra day like a case of covid - it really doesnāt fit with the enjoyment of life for me
There is much freedom in trading daily charts and arenāt we all in it for that when all said and done?
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Simple is always best.
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I prefer higher time frames like H4, H12. They give more accurate information than other lower time frame.
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I prefer Tokyo trading session.
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There is no ābestā one, it depends on your trading style. I mainly trade the daily charts myself
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Yeah it depends. My manual trading is more daily TF but I have an EA that does well that scalps the 5min chart
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The best timeframes are the ones that good traders are most comfortable with. In other words, for one it may me this, and for the other it may be that.
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Ok, Iām sure Iām advertising my stupidity by asking this question, but what do you mean by āinside bars?ā Can you elaborate on that subject?
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Oh. Never mind. I just did a search for inside bars and found all kinds of threads. I guess I better start reading.
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Every trader likes a different time frame. Regardless of what other traders are using, choose a timeframe that you are most comfortable with. I find bigger time frames like 4-hr better for my trades.
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Using the right time frame has always been a concern for a lot of traders. I just want to mention that start with the higher time frames if you donāt want to face unwanted interference that can come with lower time frames.
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all have been saidā¦and they are all correctā¦if u remember, some may see an old lady, some may see a beautiful woman, some may see bothā¦Seasonās Greetings and Happy Holidays! 