Hi, I'm just curious about chart time frames that are typically followed for daytrading(not scalping). What do you guys find the best chart to follow, 1min, 3min, 15min, 30min, 60min? It seems that 5min is probably the norm for most daytraders but on the traderinterviews.com website, a trader/author, Alan Farley was interviewed and said that in this current market environment 5min'ers are losing and missing the action. Farley said to look at 1min and 60min charts to find the best success. Any recommendations on the best chart time frames to follow? thanks
I've got my computer set up to see a daily, 15 minute, and one minute each time I enter a symbol. If the stock trades thinly I'll move to a 5 minute. Trading is trading, any time frame will do. rtharp
3 minute, 1 minute and 25 tick charts. The time frame you utilize should determined by the type of broker access you employ. -Hoyler
Interesting question. I'd say appropriate time frames depend on three major factors: 1) the instrument(s) you're trading, 2) the specific methods you're using to trade it/them and 3) your own trading comfort zones. I trade only e-mini index futures, using big 3m and 5m charts, with indicators in collapsed windows running at 7m, 9m, 10m, 11m, 15m and a second batch of combined indicators running at 20m. I've experimented with 1m and 2m charts ----- to me, they don't confer significant advantages over 3m and are often much more confusing and deceptive. Anything greater than 20m on volatile instruments like e-minis has not proven helpful to me during actual trading, though at the end of every day, I do a thorough inspection of ES and NQ daily charts. Like just about every aspect of trading, I think each trader needs to develop his or her own feel for and approach to time frames keeping in mind the idiosyncracies and characteristic rhythms of the instruments he/she's trading.
Hi, I use a 60 min, 15 min and 5 min. Starting with the longest time frame first to see the overall trend, then using the 5 min for entry and exit points. Obviously, this is not for a scalping scenerio.