i am starting to research intra day price charts. i see all the time people mentioning the 1 minute the 4 minute. can someone explain why these two stand out?
1 and 5Min I'd bet, not many have access to 4Min, just level of detail, 1Min being higher, you can get 1 Second charts and tick charts so every price change = 1 bar. I trade M1.
If you are trading intraday, look at the chart only for 5 seconds before you make a decision not more than that. No lines no drawing, simple line chart , just to have a look where it is going at the moment. Take your position and adjust it on the basis of price movement (tape). Don't marry to the stock. Make money and leave it.if you loose leave and make (or loose) on some other stock. that's my opinion.
Here is a 4 min chart on the EUR/JPY (notice the nice uptrend). Charting software is called Marketscope (from FXCM broker):
Grey, you mean the background color? You can select any color you like, grey is just the default value.
It's all good. the question is what works for YOU? Question if I may, where are you hearing/ seeing 4 minute charts in frequent use? Some while back some Canucks online teamed up and were working 4 min charts pretty much exclusively in tandem with some ryan jones position sizing methodology. any hoo, where are you seeing 4 min charts in frequent use, if that's Ok. may as well look at 8 and 13 minute charts while you're at it, too. break a leg!
You can make any time interval on most platforms, the question is what is the point of doing so. What is the advantage of using a 4 minute over a 5 minute or a 2 minute over a 1 minute. In my opinion, things work because a lot of people use it, price often respects 100 or 200 day moving average, not because the price knows the moving average is there, just because so many people look at it and react at it when price gets near it. You are best off using things a lot of other people are also using/looking at, this way you know it will have some sort of value. Most people use 1 minute, 5 minute, 15 minute, ... If your not careful you end up watching 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ... and you will get a lot of conflicting signals.