Timeframes and killzones

Which timeframe to watch for your profile, and at what times the market really moves.

The market is open 24 hours a day, five days a week, but high-quality signals only show up at specific places and specific times. Learn to look only when it is worth it.

Zoom out first: top-down analysis

Before you know where you are going to enter, you need to know where you are.

The market is fractal: what you see on a lower timeframe is just a micro-move inside a larger trend. Look at a forest from a car window and you see trees going by. Look at it from a plane and you see that the forest hides a lake. What looks like a strong impulse on M5 might just be a simple retracement on H4.

That is why you always go from big to small, the top-down analysis:

• The high timeframe (HTF) gives you the direction. It is your compass: this is where you identify key levels and the overall bias.
• The low timeframe (LTF) gives you the exact moment to enter (execution units). It is your vehicle.

Never confuse the two. Many beginners do the exact opposite: they open TradingView, zoom straight into M1 and try to guess where the market is going. We have all done it, but it is like sailing without a map, or running around like a headless chicken.

Which profile are you?

You obviously don't need to watch 50 timeframes at once. You pick a few, depending on your personality. The sequences below are suggestions, not rules. Adapt them to your strategy.

You are a swing trader if you don't want to spend your life in front of a screen. Your positions stay open for several days. You place your orders and let the market work: perfect if you have a full-time job. You will need patience, though, because opportunities take time to show up. Your sequence:

• Weekly (W1): you start your analysis on the W1, which sets the overall bias and the major liquidity pools.
• H4: you continue on the H4 to identify structure, ranges, imbalances and key levels.
• M15: you finish on the M15 for execution.

You lean toward intraday trading if you need action and feedback within the day. Everything plays out in a few hours, sometimes in a few dozen minutes:

• Daily (D1): the directional frame for the day.
• H1: intraday structure.
• M5: execution.

And finally, if like me you prefer to know the outcome of your trade within the hour, you are a scalper. It is more intense, more stressful, and everything plays out within the session:

• H4: you try to predict what the next H4 candle will do.
• M15: intra-session structure.
• M1: execution.

Killzones: when the money flows

The smart money, the institutions that actually move prices, doesn't step in at random. It has its own time windows, its hunting hours. These windows are called killzones.

Outside these windows, the market often idles. It moves, yes, but without clear intent. And without intent, there is no valid trade.

Here are the three major sessions to know, in New York time:

Watch out for daylight saving time: for about two to three weeks in March, and one week between late October and early November, the time gap between the US and Europe shifts. My two favourite sessions are highlighted: London and the New York morning.

The rest is in the book

Beat the Market with SMT Divergences

These pages are the first part of the book. The rest answers the two questions that matter: which pair to trade, and when to enter.

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