Day traders will resume day trading after the lunch hour. Some traders begin around 1 p.m. EST, while others prefer to wait and resume trading closer to the market close.
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It is very important to choose a time frame in trading. If the time frame is not right, then the result of your trading is not good. I use the daily time frame. And I use 4 hours to filter the trade. For example, suppose you get an entry point in the daily time frame. Now if you use the stop loss of your trade-in the daily, it is going to be much more pips. In this case, you can use the 4 hours time frame. You can use the same method for analysis. However, one suggestion is that if your psychology is not strong, it is better not to go to the time frame of the month or week.
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Time is relative
Albert Einstein - “When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red hot-cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”
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I trade when I have free time, since it is my additional income. But I heard that it is better to focus on London Sctock Exchange time. I don’t know if it’s true or not
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It is very important to choose a time frame to get good trading results. If choosing a time frame is not good, then making a profit in trading is a big hassle. I always use the daily time frame for my trading analysis. And we use 4 hours time frame to filter the trade. I use a 1-hour time frame only when I need to manage the trade. The time frame is an important element of trading. If you use a daily time frame for scalping, then the trading result will not be good. For this, it is better to choose a time frame wisely.
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Thank you for writing it so succinctly. I have this concept of opening a long and short on the same pair but on different time-frame; but another side of my brain is telling me it don’t make sense.
Thanks for clearing this viewpoint!
Hi Cloud
I also live in Qld. I use CMC and the daily candle seems to change over at midnight (not 7am).
Which broker do you use?
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I have replied to you in direct message as well. But I use ICMarkets, very good spreads and they changeover at 7AM. I have known other brokers like IG that I have used that is similar to CMC where their daily candle changeover at midnight Australia time.
Multiple time frames in trading give you multiple options to trade and also shows the information of the real-time trading.
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I always trade between 9.30 to 10.30 in the morning. I think the opening hours are the best. To avoid last night’s reaction’s on the stock, I always wait for the first 15 minutes to pass though. After that, the market is less volatile.
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Good to know, but the topic was rather which chart do you trade, not within which time. But appreciate you sharing with the group.
Not wrong, while trading the daily chart I do sometimes use the 4H. But I refuse to go down any further due to market noise.
I agree about day trading. I was mostly trading the H4 for about a month, and once in a while the D1.
But I started to wonder, “what do so much work? What if I do the same work less frequently and yield a higher profit?”
So, I’m transitioning to trading the D1, occasionally the W1. But sometimes, I catch myself slipping back to the H4. Haha I got addicted I guess.
But, yeah, I like trading the D1. However, if you’re on the shorter time frames, you have the opportunity to make money faster—assuming you have the time. In my opinion.
But the D1 requires more patience and discipline. You can’t freak out on the drawbacks. I’m working on the patience part, myself.
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I think alot of traders come to realise exactly that in time.
I too was drawn into the ideal of day trading - but thats what it is - an ideal
The original scalpers never sat a screens. They were in the S&P futures pit, or oil pit, or T bond pit.
They worked for banks and had one client wanting to buy, and another client wanting to sell
They’d take a cut of that trade - which lasted a few minutes tops
But they knew the order book. They could also see who was in trouble and who wasn’t by the faces of other traders on the floor
And they would run their own book and front run clients trades
This WAS scalping. As the open outcry markets became smaller many of those traders could not make money from a screen.
Some say that trading is a scam - I think if there is a scam it’s brokers promoting day trading
On their websites they will tell you how to trade the payrolls report, tell you where all the days pivot points are, etc all with the single aim of getting you to trade - feeding their own bottom line
Of course you can make money in day trading and their will always be a subset who thrive at it. The problem is we all like the idea of grinding out money daily, but very few of us are blessed with the skills - at least as beginners.
Personally I could make money day trading but always end up thinking why bother?
I’d rather sit on a gold trade over ten days and take 10R than trying to set a target of 2R over the course of a day.
Finally, when you day trade you become hyper focused on charts.
It’s easy to become oblivious of what’s is really going on in the market.
You can’t see the wood for the trees.
And it effects your bottom line. You don’t see the markets that are moving or about to move.
While I don’t use fundamentals to enter a trade I am very aware of where the money is going to flow next. And knowing this is where the real money is made.
Well that’s might take on it all anyway - lol
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@Johnscott31
When you say where the money is going, do you mean when people are moving their money to USD and when they are moving away from the USD?
Im referring to all the money flows.
Is it going into stocks, bonds, dollars, emerging markets, crypto, gold or oil?
Are people spending, are banks lending?
What’s the vix doing? Stock market breadth? Put call sentiment?
I agree not all of this is forex stuff but it sure helps knowing what is happening on a wider level.
This all might seem hard work, but much of it is made easy with the COT.
Having an idea of what is going on actually improves your technicals too.
I think there is an over reliance on pure technicals - two traders can see the same chart differently
Knowing where the money is flowing gives you an advantage in interpreting those charts
Of course what I’m saying is not beginner level stuff but I think beginners are done a disservice by thinking that following a few charts is all you need to make money.
I’ll give you one example that is playing out right now and that is thr biggest short position in the history of the 30 US bond futures COT - that positioning is going to be rectified over the next few months
The smart money is betting on lower rates - which means deflation despite QE
And with deflation will be a much higher dollar and generally lower commodity prices
This is all likely to play out after the election if it hasn’t already started.
If your staring at 5 minute charts oblivious to wider concerns you are going to miss the big moves
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Wow John that is a very big and very bold statement to make.
Considering the shear size, the complexity, the billions spent by institutions, hedge funds, banking and the fact that everything that is known about an asset is all ready written into the price (Random walk, Efficient Market hypothesis) How could you be “very aware” of money flow. You wouldn’t need to trade, you would be targeted.
Or do you subscribe to Adaptive market hypothesis where markets “evolve” which will see an asset exponentially rise or fall in value to a point that it can be exploited for profit. And you’ve developed the systems that identify which assets in which markets are going through a period of prosperity or decay.
Or maybe your a Fractal Market exponent and understand that markets under normal conditions operate efficiently as long as all information is available to all investors. And that when there is an imbalance, markets will act with herd mentality which then can be exploited. I believe inside traders know this to be true.
This foresight you hold is a very bold and daring statement. I’ve had no reason to challenge your knowledge prior to now. And I wish not to. There are too few here with the right knowledge and the site needs you. But let’s not forget that is does not cost 25 pound for a coffee in thailand.
Okay maybe a slight exaggeration - but following fund flows isn’t really that hard.
Certainly no harder than day trading
God forbid if a coffee cost 25 quid here I’d most certainly not be here!
I’ve said in the past elsewhere that I can afford to live in Thailand off my trading profits but not Manhattan, London or Singapore!
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True that, at the golf resort I work at a few straylias ex-pats have been stuck here cause of border closures. They hate the cost here and how it eats at their retirement fund. The golf is cheap but so they like that!
But for the record I’m a random walk kinda guy
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