What Time Frame Should I Trade?

[ForexArticles]

One of the reasons newbie forex traders don’t do as well as they should is because they’re usually trading the wrong time frame for their personality.

New forex traders will want to get rich quick so they’ll start trading small time frames like the 1-minute or 5-minute charts. Then they end up getting frustrated when they trade because the time frame doesn’t fit their personality.

For some forex traders, they feel most comfortable trading the 1-hour charts.
This time frame is longer, but not too long, and trade signals are fewer, but not too few. Trading on this time frame helps give more time to analyze the market and not feel so rushed.

On the other hand, we have a friend who could never, ever, trade in a 1-hour time frame.
It would be way too slow for him and he’d probably think he was going to rot and die before he could get in a trade. He prefers trading a 10-minute chart. It still gives him enough time (but not too much) to make decisions based on his trading plan.

Another buddy of ours can’t figure out how forex traders trade on a 1-hour chart because he thinks it’s too fast! He trades only daily, weekly, and monthly charts.

Okay, so you’re probably asking what the right time frame is for you.

Well buddy, if you had been paying attention, it depends on your personality. You have to feel comfortable with the time frame you’re trading in.

You’ll always feel some kind of pressure or sense of frustration when you’re in a trade because real money is involved. That’s natural.

But you shouldn’t feel that the reason for the pressure is because things are happening so fast that you find it difficult to make decisions or so slowly that you get frustrated.

When we first started trading, we couldn’t stick to a time frame.

We started with the 15-minute chart.

Then the 5-minute chart.

Then we tried the 1-hour chart, the daily chart, and the 4-hour chart.

This is natural for all new forex traders until you find your comfort zone and why we suggest that you DEMO trade using different time frames to see which fits your personality the best.