At all times, be on the lookout for imminent news announcements particularly when trading on
the lower time frame charts.
Tight consolidation can be traded but it needs to be done on
lower time frame charts and is best left until you are very skilled at trading the daily chart first.
People tend to be drawn to the «play by play» action on
the lower time frame charts, almost like they are mesmerized by the moving numbers and flashing colors... unfortunately, this turns into somewhat of a trading addiction for many traders, that quickly destroys their trading accounts.
I get a lot of emails about inside bars, and many traders try in vain to trade them on
lower time frame charts, and it really is just a huge waste of time.
One of the main reasons why most traders fail to make money is because they are stuck in a cycle of over-analyzing and over-trading on
lower time frame charts.
Forex traders are often tempted by the lure of
lower time frame charts; they think they are somehow getting closer to the «real» action in the market and that they will find more trading opportunities on these fast moving charts.
When traders begin trading on
lower time frame charts they start over-complicating the trading process by trying to read the inherent noise that is a part of these fast moving charts, this inevitably causes them to over-trade which is one of the main causes of failure in the forex market.
The forex market has such high daily trading volume, that
the lower time frame charts contain what market technicians refer to as «noise».
Many traders struggle for years trying to trade
lower time frame charts, eventually they either give up all together because they have lost too much money to bear, or they figure out that trading the higher time frames is a necessary component to consistent trading success.
If you're addicted to
the lower time frame charts, you're probably over-complicating things as well.
I am going to show you some evidence of why you need to take this stuff seriously and turn off
your low time frame charts once and for all.
Thus, YOU should do something different... don't be like the masses of failing traders who are constantly searching for trades on
the low time frame charts.
From these experiences that I've had with other traders over the years, it's pretty safe to say that «social evidence» suggests that a main cause of failure in the market is trading
low time frame charts.
Don't look at
low time frame charts because even small / meaningless daily chart retraces will make you nervous and shake you out if you're fixated on them on small time frames.
Not exact matches
Although the daily
chart has always been pivotal for locating
low - risk buy setups, my extreme focus on that single
time frame was causing me to ignore the power of confirmation from longer
time frames (such as weekly and monthly
charts).
With so many altcoin markets breaking above descending triangles and rallying to test the 0.236 % fibonacci retracement areas, many analysts are waiting for the markets to pull back and produce a higher
low on larger
time frame charts before proclaiming that the first altcoin season of 2018 is indeed kicking off.
For example, in NY city, while you may be able to produce vitamin D in your skin between 9 am to 4 pm in June or July, that
time frame when UVB rays are strong enough might have shrunk to only 11 am to 1 pm by the end of September... and by late October in NYC, according to
charts of sun height in the sky, you can't produce any vitamin D even in mid-day sun as the sun is too
low in the sky and UVB rays too weak.
The
lower two
charts display the weekly & monthly
time -
frame, with their respective closest swing high and swing
lows clearly marked, as potential future Support / Resistance levels, where I will focus my attention to the price action that occurs on my top two
charts (4 hour and daily
time -
frame) when price moves to one of my SR levels on the highest
time -
frames.
The underlying reason as to why
lower time frames (I consider anything under a 1 hour
chart to be a «
low time frame») have more failed signals than their higher
time frame counter parts, is because there will be a lot more meaningless price movement on a 5 minute
chart than on a 1 hour.
Moving averages yeah i find them useless on
lower time frames as well but on 4 hr and daily
chart for long term trades they so far have worked.
Pin Bar in Day and 4 Hour
chart would give more wins than any
lower time frame.
Simply comparing a 5 minute
chart to a 1 hour
chart will show you how many more failed signals there are on
lower time frames.
The downside is that since this indicator is based on the daily candlesticks, it only really plots useful levels on the
lower time frames, such as the 15 - minute
chart.
This
chart shows the 5 - minute
time -
frame in the top panel and the corresponding hourly
chart in the
lower panel.
Thanks again for your good advice, for impatient people like myself, that always are wondering what's going on, in the
lower chart time frames, it has been an «Aha» trading moment, in which I become to understood that the toll that looking and trading in the
lower chart time frames is taking on my health and trading account, are not worthy.
There are so many opportunities on the 4 hour and daily
charts that concentrating your mental energy on
lower time frames is simply an inefficient and ineffective use of
time.
By understanding this fact now, hopefully before you have lost much money in the market, you can begin to focus your
time and energy on the higher
time frames and avoid the struggle and frustration that comes with trying to analyze the noise of
lower time frame forex
charts.
In my experience, I have not had much luck trading them on
time frames lower than the 15 Minute
chart.
When I was first introduced to the world of trading nearly 6 months ago, my heartbeat, nerves, emotions, breathing and adrenaline showed the same pattern and speed up and down as the
lower time -
frame candlestick
charts.
Trading off the daily
charts is the best
time frame to trade because it filters out the «noise» of the
lower time frames while also providing you with some high - quality trade setups to trade each week.
There are many false signals on
lower time frames and so you have to know how to properly trade the daily
charts before you can understand how to properly trade the
lower time frames.
You are much better off learning to trade the daily
charts so that you can see what all the market movement resulted in each day, rather than trying to analyze and make sense out of each little tick of the
lower time frames....
Once you gain experience, you MIGHT be able to trade inside bars on a 4 hour
chart time frame, but that is the
LOWEST time frame I would ever consider trading an inside bar on.
In the past I have traded
lower time frames for the reason stated by others — larger stop loss required on the daily
chart.
However, signals on the
lower time frames are naturally less reliable than signals on the daily
chart because the daily
chart works to «smooth» out the noise and randomness that can occur on
time frames below it, thus showing you a more accurate picture of the market.
There are good signals on
lower time frames like the 4 hr and 1 hr
chart, but you need to master the daily
chart before you can have any chance at successfully trading the
time frames below it.
In the weekly AUDUSD
chart below, we can clearly see how useful and important it is to look at the weekly
chart before drilling down to
lower time frames.
When traders start focusing on 5 minute and 15 minute
charts / other
low time frames, they start getting over-involved, stressed out and ultimately it causes them to lose money.
If the entry is based on a higher
time frame like the 4 hour
chart, the trader may wish to hold fire and zoom into a 5 or 10 minute
chart and wait until price closes above (below) point B on the
lower time frame before buying (selling).
I won't get into all the reasons about why focusing on the daily
charts is so much better than
lower time frames, but you can click the link above to find out more.
Just like you need a strong foundation to build a house, you need a strong foundation to become a successful trader, and learning to trade on the daily
charts before going
lower in
time frame will help you build that foundation.
If you want to learn more about how I trade «
Low - Frequency» price action strategies on the Daily
Chart time -
frames; check out my price action trading course and member's community; my trading philosophy is based on trading only the highest - quality price action trade setups, which means less trades and less stress!
I trade a very small acct so have a harder
time trading the daily
charts, but I find the principles applicable to
lower time frames after gleened from the day
charts.
Thus, you need to fight the urge to over-analyze, over-trade, or trade on
low -
time frames charts.
The
lower panel shows the weekly
chart which is our higher
time -
frame.
Thanks to your excellent posts I have now opened a daily
chart on a split screen with a
lower time frame and also using a strength meter to help me to take intraday trades.
This point is really big because so many traders get caught up over-analyzing the 15 minute (or other
low time frame)
charts, and just generally doing all the wrong things when it comes to trading the markets.
Once you've applied the pivot levels to your
chart, make sure you're viewing either bars or candlesticks and that you're on a
low time -
frame.
Engulfing patterns that occur on the monthly
chart are stronger than those which occur on the weekly
chart, which are stronger than those that occur on the daily
chart, and so on..., with the significance being less and less as you go to
lower and
lower time frames.
By eliminating a lot of the «noise» you get on the
lower time frames, the daily
chart makes it much easier to discern what is favorable and what is not.