Timeframe, Reports and Leverage ...

Hello,

I have been trading stocks for some years and I am now starting with Forex.

For now I am using a demo account and I have a few questions:

1. What is the most common chart time frame used: 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, 1 hour, ...
I tend to use the 30 minutes one ...

2. I know that I should be out of the markets on some reports ...
What reports and where can I see when they come out?

3. What is the leverage you usually use. I hear of people using 1:50, 1:100, etc ...
It sounds a little bit crazy unless a person is scalping ...
I am more interested in day trading to 4 to 5 days trades.
Maybe 1:5?

Thank You,
Miguel

shapper said:

Hello,

I have been trading stocks for some years and I am now starting with Forex.

For now I am using a demo account and I have a few questions:

1. What is the most common chart time frame used: 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, 1 hour, ...
I tend to use the 30 minutes one ...

2. I know that I should be out of the markets on some reports ...
What reports and where can I see when they come out?

3. What is the leverage you usually use. I hear of people using 1:50, 1:100, etc ...
It sounds a little bit crazy unless a person is scalping ...
I am more interested in day trading to 4 to 5 days trades.
Maybe 1:5?

Thank You,
Miguel

Click to expand...

Its a very wide ranging question/s.

Presumably you are not trading forex on the same basis as the stocks.

If you want to trade five times a day, I suggest you look at a chart and find an instrument that offers 5 trades a day, that you wish to trade.

As for time scale, study the chart and find where the entry should have been for the five trades and how you might have effected the trades.

You have to make up your mind if you are going to be a technical trader or the other sort, the name of which escapes me, that would be interested in reports.
In my opinion "reports" are just another persons opinion that are about as useful as a snowball in hell.

Read the "how I made 2 million " by Nicholas Darvas. A perfect illustration.

shapper said:

1. What is the most common chart time frame used: 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, 1 hour, ...
I tend to use the 30 minutes one ...

Click to expand...

Don't concern yourself with what's most common. Pick the chart timeframe which produces trades of the length that match your desired trade timeframe.

2. I know that I should be out of the markets on some reports ...
What reports and where can I see when they come out?

Click to expand...

The calender here is a good resource: Forexnews.com

3. What is the leverage you usually use. I hear of people using 1:50, 1:100, etc ...
It sounds a little bit crazy unless a person is scalping ...
I am more interested in day trading to 4 to 5 days trades.
Maybe 1:5?

Click to expand...

Don't think in terms of leverage. Think in terms of risk. Take the trade size which matches the risk you are prepared to accept for a given trade. The leverage you use will then automatically be determined.

Windowsill said:

You have to make up your mind if you are going to be a technical trader or the other sort, the name of which escapes me, that would be interested in reports.
In my opinion "reports" are just another persons opinion that are about as useful as a snowball in hell.

Click to expand...

You didn't understand. I have been trading stocks for a few years and always using Technical Analysis. I am now creating systems for Forex.

When I said reports I was talking about Economical Reports that come out and that create great oscillations in Forex pairs. I think it is better to not have trades open at those moments ...

I would like to know which reports are and where I can check when they happen so I have positions closed.

Rhody Trader said:

Don't concern yourself with what's most common. Pick the chart timeframe which produces trades of the length that match your desired trade timeframe.

Click to expand...

I don't. When I started to look at Forex my first idea was to trade mostly between 11 to 16 o'clock when the volume is greater because US and London overlaps. But since I use TA I would need to have enough bars to take decisions and this means a 5 min chart or around it.

I have been looking at all time frames and I fell more comfortable, due to my systems, to use the 30 minutes chart but this means to trade much less during the day, maybe trade between 9 to 18 to have more bars and of course less leverage because the oscillations will be greater and probably I will have many 2 or 3 days trade ...

If you're thinking positions that will carry over for more than just a handful of hours, and planning on sticking to the major pairs, then you really don't need to worry about the day's high volume periods. The majors are liquid 24 hours, though the movement will usually quiet down in the latter part of the US afternoon before Asia kicks in.