Fine tuning entries/exits in addition to increased granularity. For me, faster charts are mostly useful to observe things that can't be seen on slower charts during periods of higher volatility. It all boils down to volatility and trading style. I generally don't scalp for ticks, but there certainly are times when the 1-minute bars become very large. If you're waiting for that 1-minute bar to form or print a pattern - you're missing out. You mentioned using a 5-minute chart. You do realize that there are plenty of people who think that even a 5-minute chart and day trading in general is 'noise', right? Each to his own.
I was wondering how anyone's mind can process information given out by one minute or 10 sec bars in such a small time. you have to collect the information, process it ,decide what to do buy sell or hold. that would be an achievement for any human.. it has nothing to do what is a large bar or noise. and no one has said yes they are successful at it.... yes I make money doing it so I think my doubt is justified
padman wassup moons ago in a trading room there were two gents that traded fast like 87, 144, tic charts with a 34 ema of proper angle serving as a touchstone from which they would trigger entrys. they showed a method for tallying the numbers daily to a tight stop and target exit default. they'd make about 8 to 12 trades a day on futures, maybe the russell, i could look it up. anyhow they did pretty good and had a lot of fun. kinda just sat and waited for the proper situation to develop and then jump on it like a duck on a junebug. take their ticks and go back to shooting the breeze in the chat room. kinda like choosing a nice flat stone for skipping across a smooth lake? they didn't process the information per se, they just didn't pick square rocks to skip and not across choppy waters. they'd wait for the proper conditions, and ... now that i think about it, they also traded charts with number of trade bars rather than tic volume bars.
Not really. I just like to have a longer time frame chart and a very short timeframe chart on my screen. For the short time frame I switched to tick charts years ago and never had a reason to change it, works just fine for me, but a 2 or 5 second chart or a very fast volume based chart would work just as good for me. Most of my trades are based from the action I see on the DOM anyways. I would recommend to any shortterm trader to not get crazy about all these technical details: tick chart or time based chart, 20 tick chart or 50 tick chart, .... I dont think this will make or break your trading.
Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Walter Röhrl could race their cars around the track like no other. They had a feel for their car, the track and everything around them much much higher than the average person. Thats why they have been the best of the best. Just because someone cannot copy their success in race driving, just because someone does not have their talent and their skills in feeling the car and track doesnt mean it is impossible, as they have shown. Similar in trading... just because YOU dont have a certain skill, just because YOU are too slow, just because YOU cannot make it in shortterm trading, scalping etc. doesnt mean that it is impossible. Some people just do it. Others just complain and doubt all the time.
I think you assume way too much. And @CALLumbus gave you a good answer already. For me, I like to plan the day ahead and anticipate the most likely scenarios on any given day. So, most of my decisions are planned out in advance and I'm rarely surprised even if the improbable happen. If something happens in the market - I have already planned it and/or practiced it in advance. What I am not doing is following the market tick by tick and reacting to every 10 second movement. I may very well wait for a 1-minute bar to form. Does not mean I can't benefit from splitting that bar up and seeing what happens inside that 1-minute bar. But yes - like CALLumbus already said - there are people who successfully scalp and make very fast split decisions as part of their routine. Takes a lot of practice and experience.
is this a complaint interesting " was wondering how anyone's mind can process information given out by one minute or 10 sec bars in such a small time."