When to trade and what time frames to trade are two questions you must answer before you can execute your trading plan. From personal experience I know that if you don’t have a set time you work on your trading then you will not consistently get to it, and consistency is an absolute requirement when it comes to successful trading. You must set your work hours and get your significant other, family and friends to respect that time. If you are like me and use the early mornings before anyone else is up (during the week at least) it is not too much trouble. Weekends are another matter. Whatever the hurdles, you absolutely have to have sacrosanct time to work on your trading business. How much and when will be, in part, determined by what time frames you trade.
When I say “time frame” in relation to trading I mean whether you will be trading from daily charts, weekly, hourly, 15 minutes, by the tick or some other time frame. It is important because each time frame has its own style, its own personality, whatever your trading vehicle is. Trading from the hourly charts is not the same as trading from the weeklies, and the amount of time it takes to trade hourly charts is greater than daily or weekly charts. Hence, you need to devote more time during the trading day to the shorter time frames. This should be intuitive, but you’d be surprised how many people believe that a one minute chart and a monthly chart are fundamentally the same. I grant that, from a distance, they look similar (for a liquid equity, future or currency pair), but they are not the same. And the amount of time you need to devote to your trading will be inversely proportional to your time frame.
So, first, know what time frame you’ll be trading, then plan to spend the time you need to do what needs to be done for trading it. Get buy-in from your family and friends and commit to a specific work schedule. If you’ll do this, you stand a much better chance of success than if you don’t.
Good Trading!
When I say “time frame” in relation to trading I mean whether you will be trading from daily charts, weekly, hourly, 15 minutes, by the tick or some other time frame. It is important because each time frame has its own style, its own personality, whatever your trading vehicle is. Trading from the hourly charts is not the same as trading from the weeklies, and the amount of time it takes to trade hourly charts is greater than daily or weekly charts. Hence, you need to devote more time during the trading day to the shorter time frames. This should be intuitive, but you’d be surprised how many people believe that a one minute chart and a monthly chart are fundamentally the same. I grant that, from a distance, they look similar (for a liquid equity, future or currency pair), but they are not the same. And the amount of time you need to devote to your trading will be inversely proportional to your time frame.
So, first, know what time frame you’ll be trading, then plan to spend the time you need to do what needs to be done for trading it. Get buy-in from your family and friends and commit to a specific work schedule. If you’ll do this, you stand a much better chance of success than if you don’t.
Good Trading!
