To me a newbie, a position length of 30 minutes can be evaluated as a relatively small timeframe based on comparatively high frequency data (which does Not necessarily generate a larger number of trades, I would guess). http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36170&perpage=6&pagenumber=2
Some interesting stuff on High-Frequency finance here... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...103-6064564-0591805?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Another example of trading short timeframe (of most likely less than 2-hour, I would guess): http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=685494#post685494
Umm...just what confusion are you trying to clear up? Trading in 'lower timeframes' can and often does produce lower profits thru countless small losses without the patience to wait for profits to develop. And if you can figure out how to 'buy the low and sell the high' of a day, please PM me. I have a big check waiting for you.
There is this trader on ET, his handle is oktiri. From what I've heard, he is an expert at developing edge based automated day trading systems. You might want to send him a PM regarding your request. good luck fan27
Man, you need to read more carefully. I never said I can do it. And the whole concept of lower timeframes producing higher returns was questioned from the beginning of the thread. I think you must have just read the last page and posted..... The sum of the market "travel" over the course of the day is greater than the open-close range, which is what you'll see in end of day trading. If one could (and I'm not saying I can or its even possible for you people who like to jump to conclusions then flame....) buy all bottoms and sell all tops, the total points accumulated would be greater at a higher time frequency than a lower one (e.g. 5 min vs 1 day). Its the basic concept of fractals. If one was to measure the coast line, from Washington to California, the length would become longer as the resolution increases. Measuring every indentation by walking the coastline will produce a longer distance than looking at a large-scale satalite photo and measuring linearly from A to B.
http://www2.oanda.com/cgi-bin/msgboard/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=003662;p=1 These guys making profits with automated trading have some double digit growth within a period of few weeks/ months, probably based on relatively short timeframes, I guess.