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I'm trying to generally gauge what other people are using in terms of time frames? I personally use anything about a 15 minute chart to avoid a bunch of the noise.
This one's gonna be all over the place because there are just so many ways to trade LOL...
I personally trade intraday off M5 and M15 charts. That said, I always have a M1/M3/M30/H1/H2/H4/H8 on tap; lower timeframes to pinpoint better entries and, in the event that one of those scalps becomes a swing trade, higher timeframes for overall direction and important levels.
Analyzing multiple timeframes can be confusing because you will get conflicting signals, but ultimately all of the charts are saying the same thing once you get used to it. And you're right, a M15 chart is great for striking a balance between intraday noise and still being able to trade effectively.
I always try to be on a minimum of m30... Every time, and it's very tempting, to go to a lower time frame, like 5m or 1m... I always lose money... It's like some law... I think to see what the market does on a lower time frame, but >80% of the time I'm dead wrong, and I get sl triggered...
Monthly / Daily / Weekly charts ultimately give me a directional bias for intraday trading. I mark support / resistance on the higher timeframe chart and will use a 1h down to a 512 tick for entries. I stay cognizant of when I am fading my directional bias & when a trade could be a potential home run this way. Timeframe confluence is the most important thing in my trading, period.
Maintaining the shape of price action across timeframes ensures that you keep perspective.
Different charts across multiple timeframes is gauranteed conflict.
The same chart viewed across multiple timeframes eliminates most of that conflict.
Two charts below.
1. LTF showing the shape of price action relative to the last 4 days of highs and lows.
2. Shows the shape of the same LTF price action relative to the last 11 days.
Not much of a time based trader, but I use a 144 tick chart when trading the YM and because of the low volume I use a 55 tick chart when trading the MYM.
A lot of traders don't use time-based bars at all.
There are tick and volume charts, which show activity instead of time (x number of trades per bar, or x amount of volume -- contracts traded -- per bar.) There are range bars (each bar shows a particular number of points/ticks of price movement) and renko bars (similar to range bars, but prettier .)
As has been said, it's all over the place.
I suggest simply trying several and seeing what lets you understand price action the best.
Also, try different settings for different markets, which have different volatility rates.
Mainly, be clear about the reasons you prefer one choice over another. For instance, I thought your initial comment made a lot of sense, simply because you offered a clear reason for your preference -- keeping noise down:
But a lot of traders will use something like 5-minute bars, and will say the same thing. The perceived noise is different for them, given whatever their trading approach is. I use somewhat fast volume bars (188 for YM) and find 1-minute time bars perfectly fine.
It's in the eye of the beholder. Experiment.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
This question really makes me think, because there are so many ways to choose between time-based, tick, or volume-based charts and then there are always order-flow approaches.
I've gone back and forth between 1- and 5-minute bar charts and have found that 5-minute bar charts are helping me improve. I've wondered if I could add a fine-grained level of confidence with a dom of some sort in order to execute once I think I see a signal on a bar chart. I believe FT71 does something similar, I've seen his setup in his trader bites where he watches a 2-tick renko and then executes on CT-Bookmap which he uses I think to do a last-second order flow check before placing an order, but that is a lot for me to learn and right now I just try to have enough confidence in the entries I'm seeing on the bar chart.
There are other approaches you could do like Belafiore discusses in one of the SMB Capital videos (I need to find the link) where he has one or more of his traders switching down to a 2-min bar chart during market open.
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