What is a timeframe?
What is a timeframe?
Time-frame (time-frame) - time interval for grouping price quotes any tool to create the minimum element of the price chart. Minimal elements, most often bars, are used to build a display of price movement.
What timeframes are available in MetaTrader 4?
Standard timeframes for the MetaTrader 4 terminal include:
- 1 minute - M1
- 5 minutes - M5
- 15 minutes - M15
- 30 minutes - M30
- 1 hour - H1
- 4 hours - H4
- 1 day - D1 or Daily
- 1 week - W1 or Weekly
- 1 month - MN or Monthly
In other terminals you can find timeframes in another breakdown: M10, M20, H2, Y (year) and others.
The name of the timeframe denotes the value of its minimum element. Elements of higher timeframes consist of elements of lower timeframes.
For comparison, the figure shows the price dynamics in the EUR/USD pair over an hour from 9.00 to 10.00 on timeframes M15 and H1. In this case, one candle of the H1 timeframe corresponds to four candles on the M15 timeframe.
The main thing is to understand that timeframe - is a set of minimum items, not the complete data for the specified period.
How to set up a time frame in MetaTrader 4?
Для того, чтобы настроить отображение нужного таймфрейма в терминале MetaTrader 4 необходимо войти в меню Вид – Панели инструментов и поставить галочку напротив строки Период графика.
After that the standard timeframe buttons will be available on the terminal panel.
How to choose the right timeframe for trading?
Selecting a timeframe in the work of a trader is very important and depends on the trading style and the number of trading transactions. Short-term movements are viewed on small, lower time intervals, long-term - on higher time intervals.
Among traders is accepted the following division of time intervals, depending on the type of trade:
- Таймфрейм М1 до Н1 – внутридневная торговля или дейтрединг, а также scalping. It is characterized by a large number of transactions during the trading day. As a rule, all transactions are closed on the day they are opened and are not carried over to the next trading day.
- Таймфрейм от Н1 до Н4 – среднесрочная торговля. Время жизни сделок колеблется от нескольких часов до нескольких дней.
- Таймфрейм от Н4 до MN – долгосрочная торговля. Сделки могут быть открыты несколько недель.
When choosing a trading timeframe, one should take into account that signals will appear more frequently on low timeframes, there will be more transactions, but, as a rule, a profit on one transaction is a few points. In this case, trading on low timeframes requires the constant presence of the trader at the terminal and is associated with a high emotional load and increased risks.
Trading on higher timeframes is characterized by a smaller number of trading signals and open transactions, but the profitability per transaction will be much higher than when trading on lower time intervals.
Why are timeframes so important to trade on?
Грамотный трейдер никогда не принимает решение на вход в рынок только по одному временному интервалу, а анализирует динамику выбранной валютной пары на нескольких таймфреймах и открывает сделку только тогда, когда сигнал на вход в рынок (показания индикаторов, пробой уровня поддержки/сопротивления, отработка фигуры технического анализа) подтверждаются на всех временных интервалах. Один из вариантов такого анализа описан доктором Александром Элдером и получил название “Система трех экранов Элдера”.
For a comfortable analysis of different timeframes developed many information indicatorsThe indicators displaying price readings (trend direction, trend strength) from different timeframes, as well as indicators working in multiframe mode, i.e. displaying readings from the selected timeframe. Such indicators, as a rule, have the prefix MTF (multi-timeframe) in their name.