Does timing of entry really matter, or just direction?

i dont know what you mean. maybe to illustrate , your selling point is someone else buying point, since both traders profit , no timing but you still need to know the levels in and out, where the retail , hedge , commercial are lurking.

A recent battle On AU , which illustrates just perfectly what i was saying...


H1


The red circle shows where i was planning to short

1min TF


1st Short attempt (violett) playing a lower high , with SL at recent high

price moves in my direction forms some lower highs and lows , i then moved the SL to the first lower high to decrease risk
cause the momentum wasent quite as i liked it to be ,aswell as we where trading towards a 50% level

then came the high momentum "rally" which took me out of that short (spread)
just to trade back to its lows afterwards...

i was sitting tight and watched if something new might evolve worthwhile taking

then we formed an indecision (orange triangle) , and i wanted to trade a pullback after the breakout , which happend to be to the downside
therfore i was ready to take a short after the rejection of the MP of that indecision

which happend , i placed my 2nd attempt short trade with sl just above the highs of the indecision.. , price again moved in my favor just to find minor support and trade back towards the MP again... this time a lil closer.. it got rejected again and tunred into a nice down move

so was my 2nd attempt bad timing ? "yes" was it a bad decsion to take that short ? no! , cause it might well have played out right away , ie we may have never tested the MP again.. and price just went staright down .. but hey.. thats something u simply cant tell.. but u need to take it anyway (if its in your trading plan)

so , the timing was slightly off , but i made money nontheless!

u see timing aint that important! , there is a difference between , a bad entry and the timing beeing a lil off (which btw. only can be told in hindsight)
if there is a setup , and its according to your plan u need to take it! bad timing doesnt mean a bad trade or a losing position..

btw the first trade was actually a good timing but , well the markets do what the market does and it shook me out nontheless.. but then again
in the longrun my trading plan proofs to be profitable.. so i dont care... anything can happen

Semantical conondrum
I think this is matter of hidden semantics. If we really explain what we mean with the terms we use, the question dissolves into nothingness.
So lets be aristotelian about the whole thing and try to be as simple and clear as possible. (This is what he TRIED to do, most of the time he failed)

If you place a trade at time X, and wait until time Y and your trade is then in profit, this is the defenition of trading the right direction.
But then if you placed a trade at time X, and wait until time Y and your trade is then NOT in profit, this is the defenition of the wrong direction.

If we call time X "timing", we can only know if it is the right "timing" in relation to time Y.
And thus we can only know if the direction was right or wrong once we have both time X and time Y.
Saying that "timing", or time X dont matter is like saying we wont make a trade.
Saying that time Y dont matter is like saying we are never going to take any profit or any loss.

So to define if we where right or wrong is both dependent on time X and time Y, and will always be, regardless of what discussions or opinions or experiences we have.
I think thats called a synthetic truth, a truth that lies hidden within its own logic. Or Immanuel Kant would call it that. Fortunately hes not alive any more. He is quite boring.

I think a clear definition of "timing" is needed.

If you are talking about when your trading rules let you enter/exit and whether you get in on time or too early or too late, then this would depend on how you are trading. I've experienced that timing AND direction plays a much bigger role when you are scalping and day trading and timing plays a lesser role the longer time horizon.

Case in point, if you hold positions for months/years, you would have days/weeks to enter and exit, where as if you scalp/day trade, you need to get in and out within seconds/minutes.

I think a better question would be, does your trade system give you the proper amount of time to make your entries and exits to maximize profitability?

Good points. Pretty much my sentiment too.

In my humble opinion it all depends on the trend itself.. a steep trend leaves no room for timings.. any entry would simply make money.. so unlike popular thought that you should wait for a correction, in this particular case you should step in right away while completely disregarding the timing of entry.. whereas in a volatile trend, timing is always a crucial factor.. as for trading markets, my only problem here is that you only get to know that a market is range trading after the fact, i.e. after a couple of oscillations or so at the same price range.. so except in very rare occasions, by the time you decide to trade the range, the market would usually break out in either direction..
To cut a long story.. if I were asked to choose between either trend or timing, I would definitely choose trend without thinking twice.. proper trend identification would always correct a bad timing.. but never the other way around..
I hope this helps

It's a great thread you guys have got going on here. I personally take day trades and look for say 30-40 pips. Direction is based on the market sentiment which i base off fundamentals. I use two types of entries. First is support and resistance levels. Second is simply London open.

If we have a reason why the Pound is going to lose value, for example, say inflation data is forecast to be weak, then people with a lot of money are typically going to be moving their money out of the Pound. Many of these will actually deal directly with the banks. So can only take the trade when London has opened, it's increased volatility...