Traders do it with MTF

How do you do yours, top down? Bottom up or eitherside?? :-p

Personally I use an eitherside approach. Using 3 charts, each chart is a division in time by 4 thus giving my analysis a fractal quality (15/60/4hour). As with all price action charts, what you see on the higher time frames in terms of patterns and price action in general, can also be seen on lower time frames. Obviously, these patterns do not appear on each time frame all at once. So I use a multitude of elements spread across these time frames to see what the markets are telling me. I might have a pinbar with high volume showing on the 4hour for a long, my 1 hour might show fib level support on the hour chart and the 15min might show an inside bar at a fib level, to again,support a long entry. My middle chart (60min) is my trigger chart, my initial port of call for early warnings signs of an impending signal, and I seek confirmation from the 4 hour (the longer term traders) and the 15 min (the shorter term traders) for further signs to then scale in my entry at a more micro level. I might just need confirmation on one other time frame but three is better.

Other systems I have read about here on FF might use just one indicator on multiple time frames with which to make an entry such as stochastics using a top down or bottom up approach. The stochastics needs to be at an identical position mirrored in time on at least one other time frame .

At first MTF analysis can seem confusing as one signal might be contradicted on one time frame by another. However, MTF can also provide the opportunity to trade more effectively in both directions as you have a visual of possible S/R areas on the larger time frames if you go against its trend on the shorter time frames for quick pips.

I want to hear about your experiences of MTF analysis and signal generation your tips and secrets that help you to avoid analysis paralysis and confusion and/ or whether you don't think MTF is useful at all and why.
Cheers

Top down , with the daily, 1 hour and 15 minute chart. If the daily is stuck in a tight range, then ill day trade with the hourly and 15 minute; if there's a daily trend then ill use only the daily and the 1 hour, but i watch them all three together regardless. I keep everything veeeery simple so no indicators or analysis paralysis, lol . Im just waiting for price to get to a point where i think it will continue in direction, and then use the smaller TF for the entry and stop loss.

As for the 4 hour chart, i used to watch that too, but i didn't find it particularly helpful; it was too long to be useful day trading, and i found the hourly better for making entries on swing trades too, so there was no point in keeping it. Less is more.

Top down for myself too. I'd go Daily , 4HRS, 1HR and 30 mins for entry.

thanks for replies. I also glance at the weekly and daily to see if anything significant jumps out at the screen in terms of price patterns. And agreed, I think less is more when considering indicators and important when looking at mtf to avoid the rabbit in headlights glazed effect.

A while back, I used to get bogged down by so many indicators and instead of thinking the indicators were a problem I limited my time frames, which was a big mistake and a mistake of many systems that just use one time frame.

Price, obviously being the most important tool on one's charts, needs to be looked at at all angles, thats why I use volume as well which works well with some price patterns but are more reliable on higher time frame charts than lower time frames. I also use MA's on higher time frame charts only, whereas the only other two indicators that I use, macd and stochastics work better on my lower time frames (15 and 60) for divergence and crossovers (but used only in conjunction with price action).