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Forex Course

174. Summary – Multiple Timeframe Analysis

Introduction  

This lesson is basically an overview of what we have covered so far in the Multiple Timeframe series. Multiple timeframe analysis in forex is observing the price action of a selected currency pair under different timeframes. Most forex brokers will provide you with several timeframes. These timeframes are categorized in minutes from 1-minute timeframe to 30-minute timeframe, hourly timeframes from 1-hour timeframe to 12-hour timeframe, the daily timeframe, weekly timeframe, and the 1-month timeframe.

Everything we learned so far!

As we discussed in our first lesson, multiple timeframe analysis involves using at least three timeframes to make a trade. A longer timeframe is used to establish the dominant market trend. Depending on your forex trading style, this dominant trend is used as the prevailing primary trend to anchor your trades. The rationale behind using the longer timeframe to establish the primary trend is because longer timeframes take long to be formed and are not susceptible to the micro fluctuations in price.

The dominant trend is broken down using a medium timeframe to establish the magnitude of the trend. Finally, a shorter timeframe is used as a trigger timeframe by finding the best points to enter and exit a trade. The most common technique of trading multiple timeframes in the forex market is trading three timeframes.

Trading multiple timeframes in forex, therefore, means using multiple timeframe analysis to inform your trading decision. The choice of timeframes used in your analysis entirely depends on the type of forex trader you are.

The table below summarises the type of forex trader and the preferred timeframes.

Note that the above table is merely a guideline. We recommend selecting your desired timeframes for analysis based on your trading style and comfort of analysis. Therefore, the best timeframes to trade in forex will depend on factors such as market volatility and your trading style.

Some of the importance of multiple timeframe analysis in forex include:

  • The ability to determine the magnitude and significance of economic indicators;
  • Identifying support and resistance levels which aid to execute various forex orders and in setting ‘take profit’ and ‘stop-loss’ levels;
  • Helps to identify market trends and their magnitude at a glance quickly; and
  • Helps in forex forecasting by eliminating the lagging effects of most technical forex indicators.
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Categories
Forex Course

172. Using Multiple Timeframe Analysis To Identify Accurate Entries & Exits

Introduction 

At this stage, you are now familiar with how to conduct multiple timeframe analysis for the different type of forex trades. In the previous lesson, we covered why you should look at multiple timeframes when trading forex. Now, let’s narrow down to how you can use multiple timeframe analysis to determine which price levels make the best entry and exit points to match your trading style.

Why is it important? 

Using longer timeframes helps get the bigger picture while the shorter timeframes show you how the dominant trend is constituted. Support and resistance levels are used to determine the best entry and points of a trade. To properly illustrate this, we will use the example of a forex swing trader.

For a forex swing trader, positions are left open from overnight up to a few weeks. Daily timeframes are used to establish the dominant market trend for a currency pair. This timeframe will help you establish long-term support and resistance levels.

Forex Swing Trader Daily Timeframe for EUR/USD Primary Trend

The daily forex timeframe for the EUR/USD shows that the pair is on a downtrend, as evidenced by the lower lows and lower highs. The lowest low from the daily timeframe will enable the forex swing trader to establish the support level. Lower highs are formed when the price of the pair attempts a ‘pull-back.’ These lower highs will be used to set the resistance levels.

Since the dominant trend is downward, the resistance levels will be used as the ‘high swings, ’ which will be the best entry point for a short position. The resistance levels are used since the currency pair’s price is unlikely to break above this level.

Forex Swing Trader EUR/USD 4-hour Trigger Timeframe

To determine the best entry and exit points, as a forex swing trader, you use the 4-hour timeframe. When the 4-hour candles don’t breach the resistance level, you open a short trade and exit when the 4-hour candle touches the support level at the low swing.

This strategy can be adopted for the other type of forex trades.

Using multiple timeframe analysis for different forex orders

With a top-down analysis approach, different types of traders can use multiple timeframe analysis for executing different types of forex orders. Take a forex day trader, for example.

Forex Day Trader 1-hour Primary Trend Timeframe for EUR/USD

After establishing the support and resistance level, the forex day trader can use the resistance level to set the sell limit or the buy stop order. The support level is ideal to set the buy limit or the sell stop orders. The ‘stop-loss’ and ‘take profit’ levels can then be set to exit these trades depending on your risk management measures.

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Categories
Forex Course

167. Multiple Timeframe Analysis – Key to your Success

Before defining what multiple timeframe analysis is, we first need to understand what timeframe in forex means.

What is Timeframe in Forex?

In the forex market, the timeframe shows the change in a currency pair’s price over a given period. For example, a 1-minute timeframe shows how the price of a given currency pair changes minute by minute, while a 1-month timeframe shows monthly changes in the pair’s price.

No matter which trading platform you use when trading forex, there are several timeframes provided. For example, the screengrab below of an MT5 platform shows the different timeframes provided to forex traders.

Therefore, in the forex market, multiple timeframe analysis is a chart analysis technique that involves observing a currency pair’s trend under different timeframes.

Importance of Multiple Timeframe Analysis in Forex

Another type of forex trader would employ a different timeframe analysis to determine their trade entry and exit positions. Any forex trader knows that the price of a currency fluctuates continuously. Thus, the trend observed in a 1-minute timeframe will be different from the 5-minute timeframe and so forth. The table below shows different timeframes for different types of forex traders.

In timeframe analysis for forex markets, it is advisable to adopt a top-down technique. This technique involves beginning your analysis with a larger timeframe, depending on your trading style, to establish the overall price trend. Subsequent smaller timeframes then follow to show how the observed trend can be broken down to find preferable entry points.

Let’s take a forex day trader, for example. Such traders do not hold an open position overnight. Thus, for their timeframe analysis, they would start with the 8-hour timeframe, then to 4-hour the 1-hour timeframe.

With multiple timeframe analysis in forex, the larger timeframes, like the 1-month timeframes, are used to show a longer-term trend of a currency pair. In a single glance, you can see how the pair has been trading for years.

GBP/USD 1-Month Timeframe Analysis

From the above 1-month chart of the GBP/USD, you can notice the pair’s longer-term downtrend from August 2014 to August 2020. Short timeframes are ideal for showing the more recent changes in the price of a pair. Most forex traders use shorter timeframes to find opportunities to enter a trade and identify ideal exit points.

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