The Best Time Frames To Use In Forex

There are lots and lots of time frames you can use in Forex. All Forex charting platforms offer charts from 1 minute up to weekly or even monthly time frames. So, which is the best time frame to analyze a currency pair and make money in Forex?

That depends on the kind of trader you are. If you’re a day trader you need to use a short time frame in order to capture the small trends in Forex. If you’re a swing trader or investor, you need to use larger time frames, in order to capture the biggest swings in Forex.

The best time frames for a day trader:

There are plenty of time frames that can be used for day trading. The most common ones are the 1 minute, the 3 minutes, the 5 minutes, the 15 minutes or even the 30 minutes.
The 1 minute time frame is not very good. Since you’ll always pay a 3 or 5 pips spread in Forex, most of the times the 1 minute period doesn’t offer you much opportunities. This time frame is too small in order to avoid all the noise, and in order to find good intraday trends.
The same happens with the 3 minutes chart. If you use this chart you won’t be able to notice any difference between a small price swing and a big one.
The 5 minutes is a decent time frame to day trade Forex. It allows you to catch fast trades with decent movement in order to pay for the spread and keep some profit for you as well.
The 15 minutes time frame is like the 5 minutes, one of the best time frames for a day trader. It allows you to clearly see the difference between small trends and the big ones. This time frame also allows you to hold your winners for much more time than the 5 minutes time frame, so it’s a good choice for day traders.
The 30 minutes time frame can also be used for day trading Forex. However, this time frame can only be used if you intend to hold a trade for up to 6 or 8 hours.

The best time frames for swing traders:

The most commonly used time frames for swing traders are the 1 hour chart, the 2 hours chart, the 4 hours chart and even the daily chart.
The 1 hour chart is a good time frame if you want to hold a trade for 1-2 days. It presents good opportunities for this kind of traders, and allows you to trade with good risk-rewards (something that’s almost impossible to do in small time frames like the 5 minutes chart or below).
The 2 hours chart and the 4 hours chart are probably the best time frames for traders that want to hold a trade for some days up to 2 weeks. These time frames allow you to capture the biggest movements in Forex.
The daily chart is intended for traders that want to hold a trade for weeks and for investors. It’s a good time frame that allows you to know where a currency pair is headed for the next weeks.

There are lots of time frames to choose from in Forex. Depending on the kind of trader you are, you can use these different time frames to achieve your goals. Keep in mind that all time frames have advantages and disadvantages compared with the others. You simply need to choose the ones which work better for you.
When you’re looking for your favorite time frame keep in mind that if you are going to use technical analysis in your trading, this kind of analysis works better on larger time frames. Any technical indicator works better in larger time frames.