Regardless of the “timeframes” of the data in your charts (i.e., hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc.), the basic principles of technical analysis endure. Opportunities exist in any time frame. But customized settings of the technical analysis tools are needed for each time period.
On the weekly chart, the scale interval on the time axis is one week. On the monthly chart, correspondingly, every bar shows price behavior for one complete month. It is obvious that in order to cover a longer period of time and to be able to analyze long-term trends, one has to compress the price behavior. A weekly chart, for example, can cover a period of five years and more, the monthly chart can cover twenty years or more. This is how the analyst manages to see far ahead of her-/himself and that is how s/he can assess the market in terms of the long-term opportunities, which are really valuable while conducting the technical analysis.
The order of studying price chart is very important for deep analysis. It is wise to start by analyzing long-term charts and then move slowly to short-term charts. There is less “noise” on the long periods, that is why graphic models, basic trend lines and different levels of support or resistance are seen more clearly. This accounts for the type of work with data time periods. If we start studying short-term market, later on, as the volume of analyzed data expands, we will have to reconsider the conclusions several times at least. In the long run, short-term results may even change completely after long-term charts have been studied. If we start analyzing longer periods first, we can establish where the market is in terms of a long-term perspective. After that, we could then turn to chart studies which cover shorter periods of time. That is how an analyst goes from “macro” to “micro” analysis. At the final stage of the analysis, we determine the point of “entry into the market”, i.e., the point of opening a position. The shorter the last analysis stage is, the more precisely one can determine this entrance point.
