Timeframe (TF)

### Three groups, one job each A timeframe is just the duration one candle covers. What matters is not the number, it is the job the system gives it. - **LTF (1M, 3M, 5M):** execution. Fine-tuning the trigger and the exact entry. - **MTF (15M, 30M, 1H):** the primary trading timeframes. Most valid setups are read and taken here. - **HTF (4H, Daily, Weekly, Monthly):** direction and bias only. You never take an entry from an HTF chart. They tell you which way, not when. Higher timeframes carry more authority. The 4H outranks the 1H, which outranks the 15M. When the HTF bias, the MTF setup and the LTF trigger all point the same way, that alignment is the highest-probability condition the system has. ### The order is always top down Bias first, setup second, trigger third. Read the HTF for direction, drop to the MTF for a setup that agrees with it, then drop to the LTF to time the entry. Flip that order and you get the classic retail loss: a beautiful 1M trigger taken straight into the teeth of the Daily bias, then steamrolled when the bigger flow reasserts itself. A clean trigger that fights the HTF bias is a trap, not a trade, no matter how pretty it looks. ### The 1H ceiling We do not take entries above 1H. Everything from the 4H up is technical analysis only, forever. The reason is mechanical, not stylistic. Above 1H the stop has to widen, the hold stretches into days, and the precise risk-to-reward math the whole approach depends on falls apart. The ceiling is the wall that stops the system drifting into swing-trade territory and keeps every trade inside the intraday window the rules were built for. It has one knock-on effect worth memorising. A 1H setup can only ever be confirmed by a 30M or 1H rejection, because there is no valid timeframe above it to borrow confirmation from. ### Neighbours have to agree A break of structure is more trustworthy when the timeframes around it tell the same story, so you cycle the neighbours before committing. Reading a 15M setup, check the 30M and the 1H. Reading a 5M setup, check the 3M and the 15M. If the break is only marginal on the highest timeframe of your class, step one higher and confirm it before you act. There is a sensible exception for fast markets. If there is no clean 1H break but price is expanding hard and both the 15M and 30M show true breaks, that is still acceptable. The point is confluence, not bureaucracy. The same neighbour logic gates your trigger, and here the map is exact. A rejection candle only counts if it forms on your setup timeframe or one step either side. A 15M setup takes its rejection from 5M, 15M or 30M. A 1H setup takes it from 30M or 1H only. Outside that map the candle is an invalid entry, however clean it looks. ### A word on the 1M It is not the go-to. It is full of fakeouts and the system is genuinely weaker on it than on the higher timeframes. The permitted use is narrow: the market is trending fast, nothing has presented on the higher timeframes, and price is not reversing slowly enough to be caught on a 15M or 30M. That is the whole allowance. A patient pass on a messy 1M tape is almost always the right call. *Module 9, Lesson 2: Timeframe Groups, and Lesson 14: Entry Confirmation & Rejection Candles.*