1-min timeframe

[Skitch]

Hey all,

Why is it that scalping seems to get a lot of bad press in forex?

Catching reversals using candle sticks and western indicators @ key s&r with 2:1 rr certainly seems profitable alongside a high volume of possible trades..

Am i missing something here? Why is it people hold more weight towards formations on longer term timescales?

 

[Splitlink]

Scalping is a fulltime operation. If you like it, Good Luck. It's horses for courses. Each one's personality has much to do with the way he trades.

 

[theSheik]

crickey, who wants to trade all that noise whilst getting a nice screenburn under the eyes

there's more to life, trust me.....

 

[bbmac]

Hey all,

Why is it that scalping seems to get a lot of bad press in forex?

Catching reversals using candle sticks and western indicators @ key s&r with 2:1 rr certainly seems profitable alongside a high volume of possible trades..

Am i missing something here? Why is it people hold more weight towards formations on longer term timescales?

Both of the above posts are somewhat misleading although the first's comment that '..It's horses for courses. Each one's personality has much to do with the way he trades. ..' is undoubtedly true. For me I much prefer a 5hr trading session that much more often than not has a handful of hi-probability trading opportunities in most market conditions (when say the longer t/f's are ranging) reducing time spent in the market, than having to hold longer/overnight.

Also The 1min t/f as a market trigger does not have to be purely scalping, it can provide early timed entries to longer positions.. if used intelligently. This said it is true that 1min price action alone can be more unreliable than longer t/f's but if you base your trading decisions on the confluence of tech factors, including price action and these factors include the underlying tenets of tech trading than 1min can be a consistently profitable t/f trigger.

This is not neccessarily connected to the above posters (before anyone gets upset,) but do not mistake someone's 'it can't be done' with meaning it can't be done -more often than not they mean they cannot do it/have a preference for an alternative t/f or methodology.

G/L

 

[Splitlink]

Both of the above posts are somewhat misleading although the first's comment that '..It's horses for courses. Each one's personality has much to do with the way he trades. ..' is undoubtedly true. For me I much prefer a 5hr trading session that much more often than not has a handful of hi-probability trading opportunities in most market conditions (when say the longer t/f's are ranging) reducing time spent in the market, than having to hold longer/overnight.

Also The 1min t/f as a market trigger does not have to be purely scalping, it can provide early timed entries to longer positions.. if used intelligently. This said it is true that 1min price action alone can be more unreliable than longer t/f's but if you base your trading decisions on the confluence of tech factors, including price action and these factors include the underlying tenets of tech trading than 1min can be a consistently profitable t/f trigger.

This is not neccessarily connected to the above posters (before anyone gets upset,) but do not mistake someone's 'it can't be done' with meaning it can't be done -more often than not they mean they cannot do it/have a preference for an alternative t/f or methodology.

G/L

bb, I've been too long on these boards to tell folk what is good and what is bad. I try to be as benign as possible, nowadays, because they are going to do what they want, anyway.

I trade shortish TFs, but 1 minute! I leave that to the youngsters.

 

[Lord Flasheart]

I beleive scalping gets bad press because more scalpers lose than position traders.Most new traders cant wait to trade and think scalping is the action end and hence they rapidly lose their money.There is more money in scalping if you can do it right,but most scalpers are just gamblers

 

[Pippy5000]

I scalp successfully for a living but not using the 1m charts..

Use stops to trade breaks for small gains with a tiny stop or trade major s/r t/p bounces/failures with limits if you have a head for it..

I think it's really part of the process of becoming a real trader to:

a. blame your broker for your losses
b. fantasize about a trading bot to lead you to riches
c. talk about catching every move there is to catch

the first two are comical.. the third is THEORETICALLY possible, but so painfully unrealistic that I feel comfortable scoffing. You really can't discount the luck factor. Line up 100 traders and tell them to flip 10 coins. One of them very well may flip 10 heads in a row, but does that mean he's a talented coin flipper or just really lucky? Of course, successfully trading the 1m charts based on irrelevant candlesticks is a less than 1% endeavor. So let's move on to the lottery. The lottery is a 1 in 100,000 to 1,000,000 chance. I've heard of teams of people investing into lottery pools behind the genius of a mathematician and winning, but even these teams generally lose. Your chances of winning the lottery by buying a ticket are abysmally poor, yet it happens.. Does this mean that lottery winners are just really talented at picking numbers or are they just really lucky?

I'll tell you that even if you are capable of achieving short-term success trading the 1m charts with candles, there isn't a bank in the world that will hire you. They're well aware that you're most likely a fluke, just like your bot. Give it enough time and you'll be gone just like every other magician.

I think this sort of dreamy-eyed optimism is harmful to your growth. Learn how to trade the hard way. It really is the only way. You will lose and learn and in a few years you can quit your job and in a decade you can buy a big house if you keep at it. That is more realistic.

 

[Skitch]

Expanding on this a little; The reason i ask about the 1-min time frame is that ive seen a very successful fund manager trade off 1min/2mins on NASDAQ stocks and make it look like child's play. Believe me I've learnt nothing is as it seems..
but i have a lot of free time being a student so i just wanted to try and gain the experience at an accelerated rate by trading a micro with a small amount of (losable) money.

Its definitely teaching me so much more than trading 4h+ TFs due to the trade frequency and whilst risking 1-2% if things go badly im going to get my moneys worth in live trading experience..

I will agree tho that 1-min timeframe seems less reliable.. So recently I've been using MTA for top-down from 1d-1h-15/5 and using 1m for precise entry alongside western tech only on EUR/USD for the time being

I have no interest in get rich quick schemes, bots or systems.. I'm really in this for the long haul. So i will ask..

Would you say this is the right direction to learning to day trade?
Appreciate your comments, thanks.

 

[Splitlink]

If you are on 1 min TFs, then you are a young man in a hurry, I'd say.

Don't miss lunch.

 

[foredog]

If you using a 1 minute chart to look for Inside bars/ pin bars to trade then you will probably blow up...BUT... if you are looking at a 1 min chart to see how many times prices has hit a level and bounced off etc that you wouldn't see on a 1hr chart then that is different. Just because a 1min chart has 59 more bars an hour then a 1hr chart doens'tmean you're going to make 59 more trades.

 

[Skitch]

If you are on 1 min TFs, then you are a young man in a hurry, I'd say.

Don't miss lunch.

Going to miss class at this rate! :]

So are you saying using 1-min timeframes for entry points is bad?..
It just seems so beneficial to be able to scale positions & find entry points early to maximize risk/reward

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong...

 

[bbmac]

You should use whatever works for you, and as someone else mentioned on this thread, you will find what suits your personality/temperament/style/prefererences etc...Do not believe the Nay-sayers that say 'It can't be done on 1min or to stay well clear of 1min.' Whatever works for you is the best way to trade. A trading edge can be developed on any t/f trigger particularly if used in conjunction with other t/f's and trend.
G/L

 

[Splitlink]

Going to miss class at this rate! :]

So are you saying using 1-min timeframes for entry points is bad?..
It just seems so beneficial to be able to scale positions & find entry points early to maximize risk/reward

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong...

Not at all. Nothing is good or bad. Just try them all out and see what you like best.

1 min TFs mean 1 minute decisions. There are plenty of threads that will give various trading ideas but my preference is for for one or two trades in a morning session. The brokers love 1 minute traders because of the number of trades that they do.

 

[tenbobtrader]

Hey all,

Why is it that scalping seems to get a lot of bad press in forex?

Catching reversals using candle sticks and western indicators @ key s&r with 2:1 rr certainly seems profitable alongside a high volume of possible trades..

Am i missing something here? Why is it people hold more weight towards formations on longer term timescales?

Not at all. Nothing is good or bad. Just try them all out and see what you like best.

1 min TFs mean 1 minute decisions. There are plenty of threads that will give various trading ideas but my preference is for for one or two trades in a morning session. The brokers love 1 minute traders because of the number of trades that they do.

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/day...sk-reward-ratio-please-help-8.html#post937390

If its working your obviously not missing anything

if its not - stop before your account goes missing, it is a hard tf for many

 

[Black Swan]

IMO the main problem with 1-3 min tfs is you can only realistically (manually) trade one security. As someone who has migrated (arguably evolved) to become a higher probability trader (spreading the risks and therefore trades across 9 pairs over longer TFs) it's a complete anathema to me.

Given that we are, once in the trade, at the mercy of the markets I'd suggest that you could have very bleak days trading on the one security for hours on 1 min TFs. Having said that It does and can without a shadow doubt work and your losses, although plentiful in a session will be negligible per trade...you could set a stop loss of ten and not give a flying if it's stopped...just move on

One thing I've always maintained is that if you had to absolutley try and make money on any given day then trading off the 3 min can and does work. The other issue with short term TF trading is it's a great exercise in as much as it totally kills any hesitation.

Let's look at cable since 6:45 this morning; dropping down to a 3 min TF but still using my technique/edge I'd have taken ten/eleven trades on a 3 min TF...6/7 winners...potentially 180 pips+ net, a very good days work...

 

[meanreversion]

What is the definition of a scalper, i.e. does this imply a minimum number of trades per day (20+)? Also, doesn't bid/ask tend to drown out profit in the long run, from a purely theoretical viewpoint? Put it this way, if you are a successful scalper then most arcades will take you on and back you, because of the commission they earn off your trading.

 

[Black Swan]

What is the definition of a scalper, i.e. does this imply a minimum number of trades per day (20+)? Also, doesn't bid/ask tend to drown out profit in the long run, from a purely theoretical viewpoint? Put it this way, if you are a successful scalper then most arcades will take you on and back you, because of the commission they earn off your trading.

TBH I now avoid describing anyone trading off short term TFs as "scalpers". To me a scalper (in the true sense of the word) is an exploiter of gaps/mistakes and not a genuine trader. However, the term has moved on to now describe folk trading off short term TFs which is incorrect as far as I knew...

If I was going to trade off short term TFs I wouldn't go below 5 min and I'd concentrate on 2 pairs; GBP/JPY and cable, I'd also trade crude. The trade costs would only kill you if the spreads were poor and you were paying too much for the stops, or paying for stops at all..

 

[Pippy5000]

I mean it as someone who enters and exits a trade within seconds or minutes seeking small gains while offering only small potential losses and enters trades frequently showing little concern for longer-term trend or other longer-term issues.. I made 7 trades today (all counter-trend) and will probably make a total of 10-12 by the time the Asian session is done. I'm not aware of any minimum amount of trades necessary to be considered a scalper even in the sense of the incorrect colloquial term used by most traders to describe highly-active day traders.

I do not make decisions on when/where to enter a trade based on information found on the 1min or tick charts, particularly not the candles.

I use limits to play counter-trend bounces and failures and stops to trade breakouts of s/r. Knowing when to expect either to occur in your favor is a bit tricky, but the more you do it the better you will be at judging when it is appropriate to expect a certain movement to occur at a certain time in the very near future. Also, I never use market orders.

then most arcades will take you on and back you, because of the commission they earn off your trading.

unless they are taking a position opposite to yours rather than simply compensating themselves via the spread

 

[Shikamaroo]

Its definitely teaching me so much more than trading 4h+ TFs due to the trade frequency and whilst risking 1-2% if things go badly im going to get my moneys worth in live trading experience..

If it is that you want to learn faster and you cant get enough entries on the 4hr tf during your trading day, there is a trade simulator out there. I don't know if you use metatrader however someone coded an expert advisor that allows you to test your strategy by actually making the trade manually against the history in strategy tester.

it has stop orders market orders and you can adjust them

i am a big fan of it as it has helped me with taking my entries and negotiating my way to take profit. if u want it it is free on one of those many forums i have joined while looking for free stuff. (i like Trade2Win best though) i would give you it but as i didn't write it i feel bad distributing it, but, you should find it since you're on the internet any way.

just know it doesn't tell u if there is an FA, and dont cheat by memorising the charts :cheesy: i love free stuff:clap: