I am looking for feedback on time frames. I am a intraday trader for now, may get back to overnight and multi day holds later. I feel that 5 minute charts are just right for NQ.. anything less and there are just too many candles and too many signals to consider. Anything more and I am missing out. What time frame do you choose for day trades?
For me depends on volatility, when I back test, I chop up data on some scans to realize extreme movement like past couple days to find the 3 "mean" best time frames down to less than 60 seconds. If you are getting too many signals, you develop more patterns to filter down the signals. Last 2 days been using 15 seconds in ES, so as not to have 4 times as many signals, one filter is requiring so many upcloses, so much range in a row besides the regular signal, so in terms of what it first seeks is strong enough counter movement to then sell once it gets at 50% or greater of last mini-swing. So little added rules to fine tune and reduce the abundance. But being am scalper then day trader, one minute on all the Indexes for me normally. Yea, the runners were very fun last couple days, LOL.
I use three time frames for day trading as they all need to concur in confirming a signal. Which ones to use need to be a function of your own trade style, temperament and personal qualities (patience, discipline, focus etc.). I prefer volume based charts as I like them to reflect pace of price development. That said, my default settings for the NQ are 500-1500-4500 tick charts and will adjust up or down given abnormally slow or fast pace. What works for you is something you will have to discover with work, study and testing.
I find tick charts very useful in heightened volatility such as this week. Currently using a 133 tick chart for execution. But for broader analysis, I still use 1 minute/5 minute and higher. This is for ES.