Technical analysis is very important to most traders as it provides the back bone of your trading system whether you will be a day trader or a swing trader. And the beauty of this you can apply it to any market or time frame, you just have to take the time and do research on which indicator set you would like to use.
Chart Types
Time Interval
Now most traders use time charts to apply their technical indicators. Time based charts happen every time on the interval you have made the decision to trade with, fore example on a 30 minute chart a new candle will appear every 30 minutes of market action..
Every broker has these time based charts included in their trading platform and this is all included when you have registered an account with them..When you are only consider time, volume and market activity have no impact on the particular chart as time is the only factor no matter of current market conditions..
Now these are my personal favorite so I may be a little biased here as I trade them exclusively as they give me a better over view of the price action.The beneficial side of tick charts is they allow you as the trader to obtain further information that is happening in the market you are trading at the moment.. Tick Based charts are derived from quantity of orders in the market at the current time, this is relevant in the event the amrket conditions are quite active or if the oppoaite case once the is quite slow with hardly an volume at this point of time. For example an 89 tick chart requires that 89 trading transactions are needed to have happened before a candle will form and the same in a 233 tick chart where 233 transactions need to happen before candle formation.
But they are not just for small time frames either you can use them to slow up the chart action by using a 375 or 610 tick charts for your swing trading analysis. I apply a 610 tick chart to gauge the overall trend of the market I personally trade..
These types of charts are not included in your trading platform which is definitely their weakness but to overcome this ninja trader platform which is available free ande you could open a trading account with a compatable platform these are then available at no extra cost to your trading.. Would you believe the information you can receive by applying these charts to your cuurrent trading system may just make a sizeable differentce to your overall performance..
These are similar to tick charts so if you use a 2000 volume chart when 2000 transactions are completed a new bar will form. A large number of traders use Fibonacci numbers to pick what size volume chart they would like to apply to their trading..
Range Bars
Range bars are based on the changing of price at a certain range you choose. To use the Russell emini as an example a 10 bar range type chart means when the bar opens 583.0 are new bar will not be formed until a price of 584.0 is hit if you are long the market or at 582.if going short in the market it would be 0.. By their nature a new bar is opened when the high or low of the specified price movement is reached.
An asset using range bars is in a choppy market.. In these times during the trading day fewer bars will be printed which in turn will help eliminate some of the market noise.
Overview
As you can see there are significant advantage over time based charts using tick, volume or range bars,but unfortunately you will have to purchase a data feed into ninja trader if your broker is not compatible (refer to their websites as many brokers are ). The charts that are available toi you through your current broker are quite adequate for new traders in the market.. As you know more about the market you might want to apply theses as later options.. This is a currency trading for dummies view on charting but this is really a valueable strategy idea to consider.