Minimum and Maximum swing sizes for applying Fibos??

I am reading a book about Fibonacci trading. The author has a good point: "There should be a minimum and maximum swing sizes to apply Fibo , if the swing is small , there will be too much noise and profit margin is small ,if the swing is large , the turning points will be very far away and has no meaning"

He has a table for different commodities optimum swing sizes , but he doesn't include Spot FX pairs.

I tend to agree with this... I use fib retracements to get into trend moves and in my experience swings that are too large loose value. The question is how do you know when the swing is too large?

When I spot a swing, I search for the longest timeframe in which the swing is significant. When this timeframe is found, I tend to play the trade according to that timeframe. (For example, you can zoom out on a 1 minute chart and identify a swing - but if it is a daily swing, playing it as a 1 minute trade won't help much.)

Identifying the ideal timeframe for me is a discretionary process, and quantifying it is pretty hard as it would be a function of both range (pips) and time (bars). This is also why I am sceptical about "optimal swing sizes"... of course its a way to fill pages, and pages need to be filled in order to sell a book.

You might use a method including BW fractals to identify the ideal timeframe. In this case, you identify a swing, and look for the longest timeframe on which both extremes are a fractal. BW Fractals are bars that have extremes exceeding the highs or lows of the 2 preceding and 2 following bars.

Anyway, keep in mind you'll probably have a hard time finding an edge trading Fibs alone.

The author also uses Fibonacci with the time axis. Anyways I read the book only to know how to use the Fibs correctly.

If small TF's don't make sence, zoom out.
If large TF's don't make sence zoom in.
All of course is relative to the TF 's you're most comfortable with.
I go with these: Monthly/weekly for longer term, daily i look at, well, every day
hourly breaks down the Daily, 30 and 15 minutes breaks down the hourly, 5 and 1 minute and even 10 second some times in very fast markets.
You will find the Fib swings well defined within these TF's.

How are you?

Can you give us the name of the book so we ulso can benefite from it.

thanks

Yoenes