Where is the swing?

It is essential to have a clear top down view in what market cycle one finds oneself.

A lack of understanding these principles result to extreme emotional turmoil since one would experience streaks of conducive and counter conducive periods if stuck trading only one time frame

This becomes a compounded problem if trading very low time frames like 15 minutes and below

trading extra small time frames like this suggests a sense of control

or even more less pain

to the novice small time frames are attractive since there is movement on the screen

we are naturally drawn as humans to "noise", want to be part of where "the action is"

later in the trading career it is luring to still try to master these smaller events since one doesn't need to endure pain in the form of retracements, one can trade on , what seems, a natural flow of price

not so fast!

there is no easy money in the markets

any specific time frame swings only a very limited period of time and as such all other times are "hard"

yet an approach where you trade where the swing is, or use an even more sophisticated system where quad runners automatically capture the largest swings, is principle based

you can find the "swinging" time frame based on leg counts, how homogeneous price candles print, indicators who represent standard deviation, among others.

One good way to see if one has time relativity errors is comparing what the market offered in regards to price movement in relationship to range

Meaning in the example of Bitcoin which moved in the last three weeks from $ 38,532 to $52,879, a 37.23% advancement, you need to ask yourself, how many trades did I take and how much profits did i make in relationship to this price advancement

These comparisons also reflect risk- If you barely made money but generated a lot of commissions and execution points (entries/exits) you increased risk from the point of possibilities for human error (trading mistakes)

zooming out, Bitcoin from mid of August last year, a six month time frame, advanced from $24,200 to $52,879, a stunning 119%.

Putting ones profitability , trade frequency and alike in perspective one more time should show if trading errors insisting on too small time frames might be the case.

Now this is not meant under the view of profitability maximization-quite the contrary.

This exercise is to find where the swing is since one often looses ones objectivity being caught into too small time frames due to their noise.

Why an analysis like this is so essential is in its explanation why scalping is the hardest part of trading next to hoddling.

If insisting trading such extremes there is a maximum burden on trading psychology ignoring the markets dynamic and literally trading against the markets grain

The trader will find extended periods of time where he/she can barely manage reading markets since the "read" is at another time frame and trading interpretations are directly counter to their systems.

It is this psychological conflict that has most small time frame players fail in their endeavors