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Timeframe

The period each candle represents on a chart, from one second to one month.

One daily candle broken into four six-hour candlesA tall daily candle on the left and the four six-hour candles that make it up on the right, with dashed lines linking the day's open to the first candle and the day's close to the last.ONE DAILY CANDLEFOUR 6-HOUR CANDLEScloseopenhighlow=00:0006:0012:0018:00one dayThe same trading, summed up in one bar or spelled out in four.
How timeframes stack up. A daily candle is not different data, only coarser data: it opens where the first six-hour candle opened, closes where the last one closed, and its wicks reach the highest and lowest prices any of the four touched.

A trend on one timeframe can be a pullback on a higher one. Multi-timeframe analysis means picking a higher timeframe for direction, an intermediate one for the setup, and a lower one for the entry.

Lower timeframes have more noise and more trades; higher timeframes have fewer signals and larger stops. Neither is better, but mixing them without a plan is a common cause of confusion.

Example: a swing trader uses the weekly chart for trend, the daily for the setup, and the hourly for entry timing. A scalper might use 15-minute, 5-minute, and 1-minute.

Related: candlestick, trend, day-trading, swing-trading

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