which time frames to use

which coefficient do i look at and why? there are daily, hourly, monthly etc. on different websites, and some of those websites don't even have monthly yearly. confusing...
i'm looking at hourly trend trades (for now), and 4h soon.

it doesn't really matter at all which time frame you look at, or trade on,
because the market is fractal in nature, and price action is the same on all the time frames,
you just have to adjust your sl and tp to the current time frame you use,
whatever that would be. as a rule, the larger time frame commends the smaller time frames.
so for a directional bias you should use the larger time frame as your guide,
then you can trade on any one of the lower time frames that suite your personal risk profile best,
just trade on the time frame you feel most comfortable at. at the same time,
be aware of the larger time frames and what price behavior is there,
what time frames you should use is a personal thing and what you like best.

very good!

I analyse my week using H4, analyse each day and make predictions on H1, and use M15 to get a good entry point.

:-)

For your sanity,longevity,families sake and profitability,I wouldn't go less than 4hourly,just a quick glance at lower timeframes to fine tune entry's (if your method requires).

Hi all,

Take your direction from daily and use 4hr and 1hr for entries. I posted a very simple system here - http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=592827 that many people are now using and making good pips and $.

Cheers
Pharley

Choose a time frame with a good range to make consistent profit and a good sample size to reduce head fakes. Then convert it to a lower time frame to gain precision.

i made a mistake with the title. it should be:

WHICH CORRELATION COEFFICIENT TO USE AND WHY (e.g. daily, hourly, weekly etc) when deciding if a trade is too correlated or not to take??
(don't want to double up on risk)



i re-posted the topic in a new thread. SORRY everyone. i don't normally make a mistake like that. (i'll still read and ponder these replies. thank you. plz respond if you know the answer in the new thread)

I think it depends on what type of trader you are as well. If you have all the time in the world, then you can use lower time frame, but if you still have a full time work, a part time work, a relationship to keep up, and a hobby to do (basically if you are a normal human being) I recommend that you use 1W and 1D to check the trend, and use 4H to time your entry, so you only need to look 2 or 3 times a day.

If you have lots of time to look at your trade then use smaller time frame to time it better. However the disadvantage of that is smaller time frames tend to have more noise, and basically it becomes your full time job. - Heck dont we want free time that is why we doing forex?

By the way Im guilty of this, but it is recommended that we dont watch our trades often because our nice little emotion namely hope and fear will try to take control of our trading system. Just to let you know, they are bad and up to no good.

Different time frames make a huge difference to your trading i trade of the daily , 4hr and 1 hr sometimes i check out the weekly and monthly for perspective

What time frame you use really depends on your strategy. If you are scalping you can even use the one-minute time frame. That said, the most reliable long-term signals usually come from the four-hour and daily time frames.

i think the resolution for a 4-5 hour trading session is 5 and 1 minute charts. also 15 minute if one is ok looking at more pairs for trade setups

for example: a typical setup may contain 5-10 candles, which on a 5m chart is 25-50 minutes wait time. on a 15m chart it would be a 1-4 hour wait time which is too slow for the session. then one would have to look at many pairs hoping to catch a move during that window, while planning to hold and manage the open trades after the session

Why stop at timeframes - there are massive amounts of diffrent charts out there which are not reliant on time as a constraint... there are tick charts which show candles based on orders coming in, renko charts, built on brick sizes that complete on a certain price movement, range bars, point and click.... all sorts of differnet charts which can be potentially better than the normal time based charts...

I don't think people are stopping at time frames, this is simply the topic of this thread. It certainly does not limit us to discuss other charts and trading approaches as well.

Stick to higher time-frames: Daily and 4H, 4H tf is a bit tricky due to server time difference of brokers. 4H has to be played in conjunction with 1H chart.

The easiest solution here is to have two platforms from two different brokers open so you can compare the differences between their 4H charts.

The bigger the time frame the better,it lowers the risk of ending up overtrading.

I am new to the forum.

I currently use 1D and 4H TF with much success for Swing Trading, which is mostly what I have time for, catching swings between S&R zones on the NY open.

When I started I tried lower TF's like 1H, 15M, it was crazy fast and too choppy. It felt more like gambling than trading. (Not good as gamling is an emotional activity which is not what you want to be doing when trading) Anything under 1H is gambling in my opinion.

Somewhere I read the factor of 4-6 is ideal TF pairing. Think of Time frames as zooming in on your Time Frames. You really dont need any detail less than 1H for Swing trading or Position Trading.

Try slower TF's 1D to find your S/R zones and trend directions. Then use 4H (1/6 faster/zoom of the 1D chart) to fine tune your plan and find SL, Entry and Exits Points. And a tip in find S/R zone, If you like to trade 4H charts, then switch to line charts on the next highest TF which would be 1D (a factor of 6 over the 4H) find only the highest and lowest zones and any channels. Then switch back to the 4H and presto, Reliable swing points at Support and Resistance levels.

That's how I use different Time Frames. Focus on just one TF and use high or lower to get a different perspective of the price action but only for that.
Another tip, I also found that too many Channel and Trend lines and zones everywhere becomes a big mess. Make your charts simple and easy to read. Your brain will thank you.

I started learning price action aka naked and trading and found it very refreshing. I cleaned up my charting, starting focusing on Support and Resistance Zone and Trend following. Things become much better!

Bottom line, for Time Lines, Slowing it down to 4H/8H 1D is the best thing a new trader can do for themselves. And clean up your charts. Make it simple.

Stay awesome.

The signals on the longer time frames tend to be more reliable too.

hourly, 4 hours, daily. matters what I'm doing, If I wanan hold for a week ill do daily, if I wanna get in and out during 1 day ill do hourly, 4hourly sometimes during 2-3 day