What is the Best Time Frame to Trade?

Let me straight away get to the point that there is no such thing as BEST time frame for trading. It will always vary from person to person. That’s why I would urge you to stop looking for an answer to this question. You have to select the time frame that suits your personality, your psychology and it should be curated according to the time that you can devote to the screen. It’s not a one size fits all thing. Moreover, if you are copying some other trader’s trading style and time frame just because that trader is very successful, it won’t be a very good idea. The time frame that suits him or her might prove to be a disaster for you!

 One of my Twitter follower once told me that he trades only in the first hour of the market opening simply because he is free at that time and after that he has to go for his job. That’s not a very good way of trading I guess! The market will not work according to our convenience, we won’t get the right trades at the time which suits us. There is a possibility, but the odds won’t be in our favor.

So the time frame should be selected according to our trading style. Like for me, I personally prefer an easy trading approach and I don’t like being glued to the screen and watching each and every tick.

I rather prefer to do the homework once the market is closed and often I prefer doing extensive research and analysis during the weekends. So, during the market hours I just place my trades if I have to and watch the market for just 1-2 hours in a day. 

That’s the reason I have free time to reply to people online and I get time for myself too. This also helps me to easily follow my passion of doing something creative like making videos for YouTube or writing blogs. 

It’s not that I didn’t try intra-day trading, in fact, I spent a lot of time trying to master intra-day , but I realized soon enough (and , after a lot of losses) that intra-day is not my cup of tea. I still do intra-day some days when the setup looks attractive but with a very limited capital and fixed stop loss.

I prefer that end of day analysis to be one of the most simple but most difficult to follow strategy. It’s simple because it reduces the volatility and we can stay from roller coasters of the market and, on the other hand it’s difficult because once we decide to see markets only after closing, we sometimes feel bored and tend to trade just for the sake of doing “something “, which generally results into losses, revenge trading, over trading and so on.

So, the “best” time frame for trading should be selected according to our lifestyle, time available for trading and personality.

We should ask the following questions to ourselves before deciding the time frame that might suit us:-

          a)      How much time can I spend in front of the screen?

          b)      Do I have a full time job or is trading my only source of earning?

          c)      In my trading experience, when have I felt more comfortable and relaxed?  
                 (trading 5-15 min  charts, hourly charts, daily or weekly charts )

          d)      Do I have the patience, discipline and conviction to ride the trend for days, weeks or even months?

          e)      Do I feel the urge to book profits as soon as I see them (scalper mindset)?

Write down the answers to these questions on a piece of paper and try to derive the best time frame that suits “You” and then stick to it with conviction. Please note that just because you have chosen a time frame that suits you doesn’t means that you won’t make losses, it’s just that you will feel more comfortable and relaxed and the trading would be worth it!

So, to conclude I can only suggest you to evaluate the best time frame for trading according to your own personality and don’t follow what “looks” like a good time frame or strategy.