Trading Using Multiple Time Frames

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Why do we need to Trade Using Multiple Timeframes?

To improve the efficiency of our trading strategy. We see the major Trend using a higher time frame than what we intend to use & a lower Time frame to enter a trade.

Say we want to trade using the Daily Charts. We take the Weekly charts to see the major trend. Suppose it’s an uptrend in a Weekly chart. We will tend to trade only long positions. We will use entries in the daily charts to enter long positions only. When sell signals are generated we will just exit our long positions. I.e. we don’t short sell.

Suppose it’s a downtrend in a Weekly chart. We will tend to trade only short positions. We will use a entries in the daily charts to enter short positions only. When buy signals are generated we will just exit our short positions. I.e. we don’t enter long positions.

Now that we are using two timeframes. Now coming to timing the entry of trades or adding additional positions. (Pyramiding) We can further use a Hourly chart to time our entries. Supposethe weekly & daily charts are in a uptrend. We will enter a long position or an additional long position when a hourly chart gives us a buy signal. Supposethe weekly & daily charts are in a downtrend. We will enter a short position or an additional short position when a hourly chart gives us a sell signal. This timeframe would not be used to exit the trades. It’s solely to improve the timing for entry. For exits we would use the signals generated in the daily charts.

Using multiple time frames to trade

We take three charts of the same security. First is the weekly chart. Next chart is the daily chart. Third chart is the hourly chart.

We will now use the daily chart to trade. We check the weekly chart for the weekly trend. Lest assume the weekly trend is up. So based on this information we will just trade long positions in the daily chart.

We look for a buy opportunity in the daily chart or we can see the hourly chart to enter a long position.

Now for entering additional positions we use buy opportunities in the hourly chart. We would exit based on the daily chart only, because we were trading based on the daily chart.

Similarly we can trade short where weekly charts are in a downtrend and daily chart generates sell opportunity. Additional positions are entered whenever sell opportunities are generated on the hourly charts.

For Day trading we can use the Hourly, 15 Min and 5 Min charts here we trade the 15 Minchart. Or we can use 15 Min, 5 Mins and 3 Mins charts here we trade the 5 Mins chart.

Good Luck and Happy Trading.

Investment Herd

Sunday, June 20, 2010

10 Complimentary Lessons to Separate Yourself from the 'Investment Herd'

"Successful market timing depends upon learning the patterns of crowd behavior. By anticipating the crowd, you can avoid becoming a part of it."

I pulled this quote directly from the opening paragraphs of the free Elliott Wave Online Tutorial. It's critical to your understanding of how markets really work.

Now some might say, "What's wrong with following the crowd? I'm just following the easy money, right?" The problem with this logic is that most investors follow the crowd (or herd) all the way up the mountain ... then right off the cliff.

Look at today's situation: How many people you know got out of the stock market before the October 2007 top? Heck, how many you know cut losses and cashed out even six months after the top?

If you're like most people, your answer ranges from "zero" to "very few."

Being a successful investor over the long-term means you must always strive to be part of that "very few."

Famed market analyst Robert Prechter, the leading practitioner of the Elliott wave method of market analysis, once said, "Missing a market move may be a shame, but getting caught on the wrong side of one means you lose money. People who have gone through the experience know there's a big difference."

To be a successful individual investor, you must understand what it means to take risks when the probabilities are behind you and shun risk when they're not. Robert Prechter's method of analysis, the Elliott Wave Principle, is designed to help him and his subscribers do just that.

Buy and hold is dead. Trading isn't any easier. Having a big-picture outlook doesn't mean you must "set it and forget it," as the late-night infomercial guy says. And it certainly doesn't mean you must be in and out of the markets every day. It simply means you can see the forest for the trees.

You can go long when the markets are behind you, short if you have the guts, and stay out completely when the risk is too high. Simply put, adopting an independent, unbiased method is the very best way to ensure you don't get caught up in the investment herd.

Elliott wave analysis is not for everyone. It's highly technical. And it presents probabilities, not certainties (there's no such thing as a black box trading system). The most successful investors and analysts - the guys who are still around after 30 years like Prechter - are able to assign probabilities and assess risk; and they act only when probabilities are high and risk is not.

I encourage you to learn more about the method that has kept Robert Prechter out of the herd and in the game for more than three decades. His company, Elliott Wave International, has an extremely useful Elliott Wave Tutorial for free online. It's broken up into 10 lessons across 50 pages, so it's easy to read and review at your leisure.

Check it out at the link below, give yourself some time to digest it, and decide for yourself if Elliott is a method you should add to your investment arsenal.

Separate your investments from the herd; get started with the free Elliott Wave Tutorial today.

Action Insight Weekly Report

Swiss Soared as Intervention Ended, Sustainability of Risk Rally in Question

Swiss Franc was the undisputed winner last week after SNB signaled end to intervention. Euro was lifted by solid bond auctions in Spain and strengthened against dollar and yen. Commodity currencies were even stronger as supported by risk appetite on rally in global stocks. Dollar was generally soft with dollar index extended recent pull back to as low as 85.45. However, we're skeptical on the sustainability of risk rally as yen didn't showed corresponding weakness as dollar in last week's trading. Gold has indeed jumped to new record high of 1263.7 while US treasury yield hovered in tight range above near term low. Risk sentiments are vulnerable to reversal.