which time frames to use

Just understand what kind of trader you are and trade what feels comfortable.

I started as 4HR --> 1 min--->Renko 5/10pip blocks --> and at the 5/15min is where i found the optimal time frame for me (this is many years later).

Timeframes are just a personal preference.

I'm curious, how did you go from 4hr to 1min? That requires a pretty big difference of approaches.

The market is fractal and price will move the same in the 4hr and the 1min timeframes with the main difference being the speed at which it moves, so in theory no different approach is needed except for faster decision and reaction times.

In my case when I switched to the 1 min I was trying to recreate another trader's style who traded in the 5/15min timeframes..lol, my trading time was limited so I used the 1 min for speed.

My advice: All of them! Or least several time-frames.
It is worthwhile to look at a currency pair on a monthly chart over its entire history. You'll get an overview, see the big picture. Is it trending or consolidating? Has price declined/increased over decades? For example my notes on AUD/USD say "Downtrend since 08/11, but may have bottomed, or at least it has moved up slightly since 10/15. Moved into a channel during this past summer post-brexit, but not in very smooth movements - choppy on D1."
One suggested way of determining when the trend is changing is to use a weekly chart. If, at the end of the week, there is a sizable bullish or bearish engulfing bar on the weekly chart, the trend may likely move in that direction.
The daily chart is probably the most-used time-frame by professional traders, and you should always see what's going on the daily regardless of what you do. The basic concept behind the advantage of daily and higher time-frame charts is that they contain more data, and so provide a stronger indication of overall direction. I offer that support and resistance (key to Forex trading) quite strong on a daily chart, and easy to find as well. So do the weekly and monthly charts provide even stronger signals than the daily? Their candlesticks patterns might be stronger signals, but I don't use them as a trade basis, and couldn't get into something that long-term...
Sometimes I don't find a good trade on a daily so I look to the H4 and H1 charts for something more short-term. I would say that the market right-now supports short-term gains pretty well. There may be Fibonacci levels on an H4 chart you won't see on D1.
M15 and M30 charts are popular among day-traders. Some even like M5, but with smaller time-frames, the theory is that there is more "market noise", or random activity- it may be harder to get smooth, continuous movements, and you may want to exit trades too soon. You'll probably want to set a tighter stop-loss and/or manage the trade more closely with M5 and M15 charts. Another disadvantage of these charts is you will want to stay at the PC during the entire trade.

Often traders (myslef included) do a top-down analysis, usually starting with the daily chart. I'm basically a swing trader who uses support/resistance with 2 indicators. If it appears likely that an asset will move in one direction on the daily, I check the H4 and H1 charts. If those charts support the D1, I'm likely to take the trade. If I have time and patience, I will use the M5 chart with an oscillator to find what is (hopefully) a good entry to try and gain a few more pips. I also pay attention to the news and economic calendar- if there is big news pending or something that may not support the expected direction, wait.

I have also seen the suggestion to do a "bottom-up" analysis: is price movement on the M15 supported by H1, H4, and D1?

You can usually expect to be in a trade for at least 3 to 8 bars of the time-frame you choose. If you want to make short-term trades primarily using an hourly chart, plan on being in the trade for 3-8 hours. One of the main difficulties of trading is knowing when to stay in or get out even though your asset hasn't immediately gone to profit. And you don't want to be stopped out too often. (I usually make my stop-losses fairly large, mostly as a just in case thing.) If you have a good strategy, plan to stay in your trade unless there is really strong evidence that it has gone sour.



Often traders (myslef included) do a top-down analysis, usually starting with the daily chart. If it appears likely that an asset will move in one direction on the daily, I check the H4 and H1 charts. If those charts support the D1, I'm likely to take the trade. I use an indicator as well, but consider price action as more important. An indicator shows how likely the current price movement will continue, but can't guarantee it. And indicators lag behind price movement.

That makes sense. I admit I have never had the kind of quick reactions required for that kind of trading, so I was curious. Thank you.

i mostly use h1 and h4 for trading.

Its depend on what trader you are, if you are going to hold for weeks or months , huge pips target, use 4h or daily bar, if you are intraday trader, use less than 1h bar chart. Some people use all types chart fancy indicators, on the other side, some people only use simple support and resistance lines, as long as they find it comfortable when using it, there are no right answer

monthly chart frame is king.well you can say all time frames have trend that you can trade but yet again there's nothing more dangerous for your trading than trading against the monthly trend.you might get away with trading against the trend once but the next time you might not be so lucky.

While I agree that the monthly time frame signals are very reliable I also think that they take a long time to come true. One has to have very long-term positions and an incredible amount of patience to utilize that time frame well.

It's never bad to use at least basic MTF analysis in trading.
Pick a favourite TF, lets say M5 / M15 for typical daytrading. Before you take any signal on the small TF check how bigger TFs looks like. If H1 / H4 is bullish biased, take only buy signals on the lower TFs. If you watch the market with one TF only it's similar to looking through the keyhole. You can see only part of the whole picture.

Post #39

What frame is time

Time frames don't exist... the market is not a fractal... it's bid/ask that is all there is. Candles and bars are indicators just like SMA,EMA or any other technical analysis tool. You should be more concerned about having a good reason to be in the trade. Candles of different time frames all they denote is historical representation of of bid/ask in blokes of time. Open High Low Close over x amount of time ...that is all it is.

I think the timeframe for the selection depending on our needs as a trader and our trading style. Suppose we traders and often use tradng strategies like scalping, of course, we are not going to use the time frame for 4 hours. Sure we use shorter time frame eg 5 minutes.

Hey mates,
Personally, I use 4H and 1D time frames. They work for me the most. Of course, these are personal preferences and might not work as good for others. Additionally, I totally agree with the opinion of
the redlion, all that time frames really are is just another tool for analyzing the historical movement of the instrument.
GL to you all

Most people use those time frames, as they are the ones where the most reliable signals occur. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions.

It's best to use the time frame u are most comfortable with. All the signals will still be the same

Great summary
 
Yes it's a matter of personal preference /circumstances. 
 
You have free time - go M5 and look for signals.
Part-time hobby? Go with 4H. News. You miss the noise.
You have money, life and patience - trade weekly. Small profits (pips) but reliable. Fundamentals etc to look at.
 

GL

True, there are strategies that make use of all time frames, even the 1-minute chart. I do trust the 4-hour and 1-day time frame signals the most, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't experiment with the others as well.

What time frame you use really depends on your strategy. If you are scalping you can even use the one-minute time frame. That said, the most reliable long-term signals usually come from the four-hour and daily time frames