So, I'm a complete beginner to this stuff. I have decided that I want to start off practicing on short term (~1 day maximum) charts. Various reasons for this, the main two being that having a lot of "screen time" fits my lifestyle very well, and I feel that making frequent trades early on will get me used to basic analysis faster than a more conservative style on a longer term chart. I am fully aware of the criticisms of this style, particularly for beginners.
For now, I am trying to restrict my methods of analysis to what seem to be the fundamentals of technical analysis: Support/resistance, basic candlestick patterns, trend lines, and other "simple" indicators. I would like to make reasonable progress with just these before I move on to MAs and other "advanced" indicators. I am going by the assumption that these techniques are timeframe independent (conceptually, accuracy may/will vary), and that frequently practicing them on shorter timeframes will help me build a base skillset that I can apply reasonably well to whatever my trading style evolves into.
My main question is, how important is the time of day for the trading style I have outlined? More specifically, is it absolutely vital that I only trade during the US/London (I think thats it?) overlap if I'm going short term, or is it okay to place trades pretty much whenever my broker allows? While I am on the computer more or less constantly, the times I would actually want to focus on this are pretty random. As is, if something goes horribly wrong at 2AM EST, I'm unsure if it was luck, if I made a mistake, or if I'm just not supposed to be trading at all at 2AM EST.
For now, I am trying to restrict my methods of analysis to what seem to be the fundamentals of technical analysis: Support/resistance, basic candlestick patterns, trend lines, and other "simple" indicators. I would like to make reasonable progress with just these before I move on to MAs and other "advanced" indicators. I am going by the assumption that these techniques are timeframe independent (conceptually, accuracy may/will vary), and that frequently practicing them on shorter timeframes will help me build a base skillset that I can apply reasonably well to whatever my trading style evolves into.
My main question is, how important is the time of day for the trading style I have outlined? More specifically, is it absolutely vital that I only trade during the US/London (I think thats it?) overlap if I'm going short term, or is it okay to place trades pretty much whenever my broker allows? While I am on the computer more or less constantly, the times I would actually want to focus on this are pretty random. As is, if something goes horribly wrong at 2AM EST, I'm unsure if it was luck, if I made a mistake, or if I'm just not supposed to be trading at all at 2AM EST.