To: TraderAlan who wrote (9115 ) 6/23/2000 1:45:00 PM From: Robert Graham Read Replies (1) | Respond to
There are certainly the quirks you describe of a particular *range* of time frames. For I see it as "ranges" instead of one particular time frame. Patterns can come in varying sizes that are still traded by the market in the same time frame. But usually one time fame usually best describes the price action for my purposes. However, I find that this time frame can *shift* for the trader and provide with only small changes the same type of price behavior in that new time frame. I find this true with the SPOO. I think this means that many traders find the best time frame for themselves to trade in. This is usually their preferred time frame, or one close by that still can meet their risk preferences. For instance, I can find the market trading in the 3-min time frame very well and not give me much in larger time frames like the 7-min time frame or even the 5-min that I would want to trade. But then the market can slow down making the 5-min and 7-min time frames more viable to trade. So where before nothing really showed up in the 7-min for me except the occasional abstract version of a pattern I normally trade, now I see price behaving in a much more familiar fashion, which by the way I call "well behaved". And now patterns can show up there much better formed that pretty much behaves in that time frame the way I would expect it to behave in the shorter time frame. Since the 7-min time frame would have to be traded in most situations with larger stop loss, I refrain from taking the setups found there until I can find a coincidental entry on a smaller time frame, like the 3-min or less charts. Here I can be less choosy with the kind of setup I take which now does not have to be on my list or preferred setups that I normally trade, but ones that I know can still resolve in the same direction as I am expecting the larger setup on the 7-min to resolve in. But in order for me to do this, price action on the 3-min has still to be behaving good enough for me near the time I am deciding on an entry in this smaller time frame in order for this approach to work.
