If you are trading forex pairs like the EUR/USD or USD/JPY, you want to make sure that either the European and/or US markets are open when trading the EUR/USD or the US or Japanese markets are open when trading the USD/JPY. When at least one of the markets in a forex pair isnt open, price movements can be very random and thus not ideal for trading.Trading requires well defined trading plan and strategies. Without a strategy a trader is just throwing darts hoping they hit somethingwhich isnt viable over any length of time. So hopefully you have come up with or found a few strategies that you like. Likely these strategies are best applied to certain market conditions, certain times of day or to a certain time frame.Some strategies are easily adjusted to almost any time frame, while others will only work under specific conditions. For example, there are strategies designed specifically for the few minutes surrounding when a market opens. Trying to apply such a technique during the middle of the day is likely to be a losing proposition.Analyze your strategies and determine what the best time frame is for those strategies. Hopefully what you have time for (section above) and the time frame your strategy requires align. If not, youll need to find another strategy until you have more time to dedicate to trading.The sections above hopefully helped you narrow down what type of time frame you should be watching. Ultimately though there is no perfect time frame that will suit everyone. Some traders are successful trading off tick charts, while others off 15 minute or daily charts.This is where I will throw you a curve-ball. It is recommended that you dont only look at one time frame. While a 1-minute or tick chart may show you a lot of information about very short-term movements, they dont show the overall trend of what you are trading. A daily chart, may show the overall trend, but isnt good for picking out intra-day entry points. Therefore it is recommended that traders dont get addicted to only watching one time frame. Instead, look at two or three time frames.Short-term traders can view a 1-minute, as well as a 15 minute and 1-hour or 4-hour chart. The 1-minute provides entry and exit signals while the 15 minute and hourly make sure the trader is acting on more complete information about the trend and support and resistance levels.Swing traders and longer-term traders may focus on a daily chart, but can also use a weekly chart for providing a larger context for the trend and support and resistance levels. A a 15 minute (for example) chart can also be used for fine-tuning exit and exit points.Since there isnt a best time frame to use on your charts, focus on a time frame that works best for you. What is best for you will depend on how much time you have which in turn affects what type of trader you will be. Then you need to make sure your strategies are aligned with the amount of time you have, and your personality. This will help you determine your main time frame, but ideally you should also look at one or two other time frames as well. This will provide you with more information about the asset you are trading, such as which way the short and long term trends are moving, and where important support and resistance levels are.Technical analysis is a powerful tool to predict future price movements. Therefore, it is used by short term traders and long term traders alike. This fact confuses many new traders: How can one tool generate valid predictions for traders looking to hold an asset for months and for traders holding an asset no longer than a few hoursThe tool that allow technical analysis such great flexibility is the use of different time frames. Technical analysts use candlesticksto display price movements in their price charts. Each candlestick summarizes market movements of a certain time period and displays them in one candlestick. The time frame defines the length of the time period each candlestick summarizes.If you are trading a chart with a 5-minute time frame, for example, each candlestick represents 5 minutes of market movements. Therefore, a chart with 60 5-minute candlesticks displays the market movements of the last 300 minutes, or the last 5 hours.When you keep the exact same chart but change its time frame to 4-hours, each candlestick will represent the market movements of 4 hours. Therefore, the entire 60-candlestick chart now displays the market movements of the last 240 hours, or the last 10 days.As a binary options trader it is important to know the connection between the time frame of a chart and the expiration time you should use for your binary option. If you trade the exact same event in a chart with a time frame of 5 minutes and a chart with a time frame of 1 hour, for example, you should use vastly different expiration times for your binary option.In general, as long as you are investing in a touch optionor a boundary option, you take the longest expiration time you can get with a reasonable target price. After all, you win the option if the market hits the target price even once before the option expires. The longer the expiration time the higher your chance.With high / low options, however, things are a little more complicated. If you trade a longer time frame, such as a one hour time frame, with a short expiration time, shorter market movements can ruin your trade before the market had time to develop the movement you invested in.Unfortunately, there is no definietive rule on how to know which expiration time is appropreate for your time frame, as this connection largely depends on the strategy you are using. In the same time frame, a strategy trading breakoutsrequires a shorter expiration time than a strategy trading swings, which requires a shorter expiration time than a strategy following trends.To estimate which expiration time you should use for your current trade, you have to estimate the number of periods you think the movement you want to invest in will take to develop. After that, you simply multiply the number of periods with the time frame you are using.If each correction took somewhere between 15 and 20 candlesticks to develop, it is reasonable to assume that the current correction will be no different.
