Wednesday, 8 June 2011

Choosing The Time Intervals In Forex Charts

By Ricken Osten


Forex charts are available in almost every platform. These charts are structured as you might expect with history and real time trades. The typical chart will offer a variety of time intervals. You can often select from a drop down menu. Some charts are updated in real time, so that each tic is registered on the chart and helps in the appropriate buying or selling decision.

An important feature to understand about the movement of transaction prices is that within a range, they tend to move up and down. The longer the time interval, the broader the range that can be expected. You can extend the time interval on the charts to look at the history in five minute intervals or 24 hour intervals.

This fact leads to some interesting combinations. If you choose a fairly high volume pair of currencies to track, such as the US dollar and the Euro, the five second chart may show that the pair has a strong upward trend. If you extend the time interval to five minutes, you could see a price level that is near the bottom of a five minute range. This information helps you to decide whether you buy or sell the pair.

In the above example, you may want to sell the pair and buy it back very quickly since the movement down is not likely to last long. On the other hand, you could buy the pair and wait for a longer interval, as shown on the five minute view before selling. You could also wait for two or more of the indicators to be moving in the same direction before making a trade decision based on the trend.

A currency pair that is not actively traded can be followed by setting your time interval to a longer period. In this instance, you probably would plan to hold a position for several days or even longer. It is important to always be aware of the time interval that you are charting.

Another feature of the Forex market is that it is available for trades from late Sunday afternoon until late Friday afternoons in the United States. The market doesn't shut down during that time period. You can usually see peak volumes during business hours of the major financial centers of the world. Currently these are in Australia, Japan, London and the United States.

Using various time intervals when watching the Forex charts helps traders to make good decisions. Choose a platform that allows you the flexibility to view different times. This improves your ability to see speed and direction of currency prices.




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