I only use volume-based charts. Sometimes, I use small volume, sometimes, medium volume, and sometimes big volume chart
%% YOUR English is fine. I've used all those you mentioned. Depends on the market. I get a lot of good ideas after market hours on monthly candlecharts ; but monthly+ yearly are just a pro standard for money management measurement + not my main work chart.......
Long ago I looked at the idea that OHLC bar price charts are scale invariant, or fractal-like in nature. That means you cannot tell the difference between a 1 minute chart and a daily just by looking at them and seeing any distinct differences. Not true in my observations, like all things in the markets, nothing is a law of nature here as we are dealing with humans and somewhat arbitrary decisions. One thing is for sure, those lines we draw on bar charts (or candlesticks) between the ticks are not anything real, only the tick by tick data is the underlying reality. Not saying they don't represent a useful tool though as a way to package information for your brain. The open and close are at arbitrary times unless they represent the first or last trade of a session, or the open is a first trade after an economic event like a report. I do recommend taking a look at charts using units of volume instead of time as the abscissa like maxinger said above, like looking at things in a new dimension.
%% I have on occasion used 1 minute for entry; not sure how any @ all could confuse a 1 minute for a daily. Daily candle =about 97--100% of the time= bigger. I've used volume charts + much prefer standard time based. Smaller time frames contain a lot more bid ask spreads+ errors, even if that is not an auto profit killer . Nothing in this post is anti-specialist or anti- market maker; Market Makers Edge by Joshua Lukeman = a favorite book of mine
%% LOL easy for you to say. Those airline pilots use a lot of time frames+ flight plans + seasonal patterns.
It was a theory chucked out by someone I cannot remember, but the idea is you have to remove the scaling labels and then check it out. So sure daily has bigger absolute range but its 'character' if you will 'looks' like any other time frame if you remove absolute scaling. Again, I disagree but not completely. Right, liquidity always appears better when you integrate over longer times, the problem is I cannot integrate my buys and sells, they happen at a single point in time so I always look at 1 minutes when pulling the trigger.
Depends on the volatility at the moment. In extreme volatility even 15 second works (like after a Fed decision or CPI report). I do mainly swing trading so I found the 2 hour seems to work best on moderate to high volatility securities.Low volatility you probably need the 4 hour or even the daily. Short term trend capture with the 2 hour combined with Keltner channels works well. In this current market with 25-35 VIX the 2 minute seems to work the best for daytrading. The NASDAQ and Russel 2000 futures are always more volatile (and illiquid) than the S&P 500.
%% Precision entry+ exits are not my strong points+ never have been; but on SPY + related , i watch the bid ask for entries+ exits. [A day is made up of minutes+ hours for that matter] For some candle watchers , with something traded or studied a lot, we can get a rough estimate of price just by candles, even though price is checked also. I dont trade XOM much, but watching bid asks today worked better than a one minute candle. For sure, many more ways to measure a trend than time; but @ end of day+@ end of the month i never want to ignore that logic.