Time Frame Trading, Multi-Timeframe

Hey People

Doing some analysis on time frames and getting a tad confused as to how long to trade for.

I see a lot of people mention the shorter the time frame the more riskier it is to trade.

I've been looking at M15, M30, H1, H4 graphs and anaylising them however say I was basing my original 'trade' to buy on the M15 and was using the other three to confirm the 'trend'.

Does that mean I leave the trade open for 15 minutes once I buy or do I analyse large and buy/sell within seconds?

I hear the larger the timeframe the more accurate, but getting confused here with how long I should be trading (or I'm not even sure that could be answered and its ultimatley down to me?)

Thanks people, hope this thread belongs here

You may wish to use 3 x t/f's for eg 15min, 1hr 4r and look for example for pullbacks in a trend that exists on the 1hr/4hr t/f and time your entry on the 15min...as for how long you stay involved in that trade, well it depends on the subsequent price action, if the next candle after your entry is good on the t/f you entered, you would look for the next higher t/f to be good and so on....ie don't set an arbitrary meaningless time limit as this may reduce the winning trades you are involved in, let price action tell you when to stay in a trade and when not to. Alternatively you can just set a target and stay in until that target is reached and depending on your overall strike rate (winning trades as a % of total trades) the target should be greater than the stop size you use in order that over any sample of trades you come out net positive.

G/L

I see a lot of people mention the shorter the time frame the more riskier it is to trade....I hear the larger the timeframe the more accurate

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I'm not sure that either are true. Risk is not determined by the timeframe, it is determined by your trade size, and your stop size. On smaller timeframes, you will no doubt want to aim to get a smallish stop, so in that sense you could argue it is less risky. Perhaps psychologically more risky though.

As for longer timeframes being more accurate, I don't even know what that means. Are your trades more accurate on the longer timeframe or on the shorter timeframe?

You need to find a timeframe that suits you. It is no good trading the daily timeframe, if your own personality can only hold onto a winner for about 5 minutes or gets freaked out on every downtick.

Write a plan. This should cover entry criteria, size, stop position, and trade management, for a timeframe that appeals to you. Demo trade it, and then review your trades and the results. Then you may have an answer to your questions.

Thanks for the replies guys

So what I've gathered its the time frame almost correlates with the time I wish to be in the trade?

i.e; if I analyse a graph on M30 to increase, it could be likely that the M1 starts to decrease for a few minutes, and eventually work its way up therefore by staying in the trade I eventually see a profit?

Of course its all anaylsing, and that doesn't mean whats going to occur - but is what I mention correct?