Q&A: I Struggle A Lot With Time Horizon

January 9, 2020

I'm really fortunate that I get to interact with traders and investors from all over the world on a regular basis. I receive emails with great questions all the time. And while I'm happy to share my thoughts, it's these questions that really help force me into thinking about a lot of different things. So I'm learning every single day from this simple exercise. Please keep them coming!

Here is a good example of some of the questions I get. This one comes along quite often, in fact. So I wanted to share it with you and include my response.

For purposes of this post, we'll call him Questions Mcgee

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JC,

I spent 20 years on the street as a deep-dive fundamental kind of guy and have immersed myself in technical analysis over the past 2 years (some old dogs are still willing to learn new tricks). If I could do it all over again, I’d probably skip the fundamental part! Anyway, as a TA newbie, I struggle a lot with time-horizon. I seem to stop myself out a lot just to see a trade continue on in the direction I saw in the first place. my main screen has Monthly, Weekly, Daily, and 65 minute charts, so you can see some of the confusion! I have tried day-trading and realize that I’m not very good at the lower time frames. I go back and forth between whether I should be a swing trade, position trade, or some combination. Anyway, would love your thoughts.

Cheers,

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Hey Mr McGee,

You have no idea how often I get an email exactly like what you just wrote. Trust me, you're not alone.

I think this explanation I wrote can help: Entry & Exit Points

Regarding your "Main Screen", have you thought about not having all those charts up all at once? Instead having a workbook of weekly charts that you go through. Then having a workbook of monthly charts? And so forth...

I am not a good day trader either. Don't worry. Few people are. How many old day traders do you see? There's a reason for that.

For me, finding one specific time frame works best for execution, but in the analysis I use multiple timeframes. Feel me?

Personally I want to make (and keep) money this quarter, in the coming weeks and months. That's it. I don't care what happened today. I don't care what happens later this year.

Once I realized that and stuck to it, life has been so much better in every single way.

I can't answer for you what time horizon you'll decide, but hopefully mine can add some inspiration

I hope this helps

Be in touch

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Talk soon!