Entry timeframe
Entry timeframe is the chart you time entries on. Everything else, direction and structure, is read from the slower charts above it.
In depth
Pick the set like this. Take your entry chart, multiply by four for structure, then by four again for direction. A 15 minute entry gives you the hourly for structure and the 4 hour for direction. A 1 minute entry pairs with the 5 and the 15. Three charts, not four.
Each chart has one job. The slow one answers up, down or sideways. The middle one confirms the highs and lows. The entry chart supplies timing only. The failure case is a 1 minute entry judged against an hourly bias. A pullback the hourly cannot even see takes you out.
Why it matters
Pick the entry chart too slow and your stop is enormous, so your size shrinks to nothing. Pick it too fast and you get shaken out of trades that were right. Mismatched charts also make your record unreadable. A 1 minute exit rule was never going to survive a 4 hour idea.
TraderLog groups your results by how long trades were held. That is the closest read on whether your entry chart suits you. Tag trades by the chart you entered on, and the By tag table shows which one earns. Replay puts the fills back on a chart.
Frequently asked questions
Whichever one you can watch without missing fills. Then read structure and direction from the two charts above it.
Three. One for direction, one for structure, one for timing. More charts tend to give you more opinions, not more information.
Keep your Entry timeframe trades on the record in TraderLog
Trades import from Schwab and IBKR on their own, every day lands on a calendar with its P&L, and the day's entry sits beside it. Replay any trade on a TradingView chart. Free for 14 days, no card.
Every trading morning at 8:40 ET our model draws the SPY, QQQ and IWM zones it expects to matter, on a TradingView chart, before the open. Where price reaches one, it has turned 74 percent of the time. Free, no account. See today's map