Posted on October 13th, 2010 by Rapid Forex9 Comments »
One of the most common questions that I receive on a regular basis is what timeframes are best for online forex trading. While there isn’t exactly a “perfect” answer for everyone, I do have a real preference.
Swing Trading Vs. Day Trading
If you look at charts with a timeframe of 10 minutes or less, I consider that day trading. In the basic Forex Sailing course, we use 4 hr charts to make trading decisions. In my own trading & in LIVE Forex Training, I use primarily 1hr charts to make online forex trading decisions.
Although you can feel like a much more “active” trader by using smaller timeframes in your trading, it’s not really worth it. Here’s why:
Volatility Increases with Smaller Timeframes
The volatility on a 5min chart is greater than on a daily chart. This is a fancy way of saying that smaller timeframes are less predictable. While many of the same rules apply, there is an added “fuzziness” or “noise” to the patterns. Little things that can cause a good trade to go bad.
Smaller Timeframes Require More Effort
The main reason that I like 1hr or 4hr charts for trades is that you can literally check your charts once or twice a day. Once you identify an opportunity you may pay closer attention to it, but not much changes while you go to work, or while your asleep.
When I say that I trade 20 minutes a day, this would be IMPOSSIBLE if I traded any smaller timeframes.
Bigger Gains on Bigger Timeframes
In smaller timeframes you may be going for 20-40 pips at a time. On 1hr & 4hr charts you might go for 100-800 pips per trade. One trade that you look at once a day for a week that can make as many pips as 5-10 smaller trades that require constant monitoring is certainly a “wiser” use of your time.
This also gives you more time to think. When you identify an opportunity you don’t have to rush into it. You can think about it for a few minutes. You can check your calculations. You’ve got time.
Where to Start?
These are the main reasons why I personally like the 1hr & 4hr charts for online forex trading. The reason why I teach Forex Sailing for free on the rapidforex.com website is because it truly is the best timeframe (in my opinion) to trade with.
If you are interested in day trading or scalping, it can be done. But if you haven’t mastered the smoother larger timeframes, I recommend you start there
Posted on July 20th, 2010 by Rapid Forex6 Comments »
Since moving to Maui, I’ve been pretty relaxed about my forex trading. The rapid forex blog has readers all around the world, and everyone has a different time that’s convenient for trading…
So I decided to do an experiment…
Starting tonight with the open of the London session on July 20th, 2010 I am going to follow the following schedule by watching for forex trading opportunities at the following times:
London Market Open – 7 am GMT, 3 am EST, 9 pm Hawaii
New York Market Open – 12 pm GMT, 8 am EST, 2 am Hawaii
Sydney Market Open – 9 pm GMT, 5 pm EST, 11 am Hawaii
Tokyo Market Open – 11 pm GMT, 7 pm EST, 1 pm Hawaii
I will be there for a minimum of the first hour of trading following the market open times for these major markets. I’ll get there 15 minutes early to post a quick market summary for live 90 day forex trading bootcamp members who want to trade those times.
Best times to Trade?
One of the classic recommended best times to trade is in the London/NY market overlap session, which is from 1 pm to 5 pm GMT, 8 am to noon EST, and 2 am to 6 am Hawaii.
For me this time is the most inconvenient because it means that I’ll end up sleeping through several hours of daylight. I’m on Maui to enjoy it, so I personally need to select different hours…
Forex Trading Experiment Round 1
After a week or two at this pace, I will switch my schedule to the 2nd hour of market activity. Then I’ll try trading the final hour. After doing this experiment for the next month, I’ll determine if this method works best, or if I should just focus on one market overlap session.
If you’re a live forex trading bootcamp member, you’ll be able to pick any of these times to trade. You’ll have an update approximately 5 minutes before the trading session. I’ll post another update after the first hour, and possibly during.
If you haven’t yet joined the live trading forex bootcamp, there’s still 2 months left. You’ll have plenty of time to learn forex trading at this pace.
I’ll let you know the results as I conduct this experiment to determine the ideal trading schedule!
Experiment With Me
It would be fun to know what works best for you. Feel free to follow this experiment yourself, or design your own experiment. It will be fun to all learn together during this experiment. I look forward to reading your comments about what works best for you!
Posted on July 19th, 2010 by Rapid Forex2 Comments »
I’ve gotten many questions about forex charts over the past few weeks. Although most online forex brokers provide charts with an online forex trading account, you don’t need a trading account to get a good basic chart.
In the LIVE Forex Training, I’ve used the free forex charts at dailyfx.com because they provide the tools I need. It’s 100% free, you don’t even need to signup, so you can access live forex charts from any web browser.
Basic Forex Chart Features
Any forex chart that I can use for online forex trading has to have the following features:
Must be able to draw sloped & horizontal trendlines
Must be able to draw fibonacci retracements
Must have 1-min, 5-min, 15-min, 30-min, 1-hr, 4-hr, & daily timeframes
Must have all the currency pairs I trade
If a forex chart has those features, I have enough to go Forex Sailing, Forex Surfing & Forex Swimming.
Most forex chart platforms have these basic features, and each one offers something unique. These are the basics that are needed, and the free forex charts provide the essentials.
How to Use the Free Forex Charts
I’ve created a 5 minute video below to show you how to use the essential features of the free forex charts at dailyfx.com. These charts actually provide more features than what I’ve shown, but I walk you through all the stuff you need for rapid forex style trading.
Rapid Forex on 
Larry on 
Dan Onzo on 
Rob on