While it may be tempting to trade smaller charts “because then I can use smaller stops” (an illusion in itself, but that’s for another post), ignoring the higher timeframe context will too often lead to losing trades. See 6E today. After our early morning short, we were looking at what looked like an enticing bullflag on our Precision (smallest) Chart. In fact, it was nothing but part of an emerging bearflag on the 240m (our Trading Chart in this case), which again is part of a move on the daily.

Trying to trade that ‘bullflag’ on the small chart “because I can use smaller stops” is not advised: it will fail more often than not. It is a better approach to expect that pattern’s failure and take that as the clue to enter short on the 240m, a more sensible (i.e. less noisy) timeframe.

We often use the concept of ‘pattern failure’ in our Market Intelligence service when planning trades, and according to my in-house stats, it is one important part of the success of our methodology.

By the way, we’re still running the Premium VIP offer for a few more days, so this is a great time to sign up for a 15-day free trial. Join us and see how we do what we do. And while you’re at it, why not test-drive Remek! Momentum Pro v2.17, our preferred tool on 240m charts. Mindful trading!

PS: Want to know more about patterns, and how to view them, how to trade them successfully? Read our Premium Documentation, now available not only to Premium subscribers.