Timeframe

A timeframe is the amount of time packed into one candle. On a 5-minute chart every candle shows the open, high, low and close of five minutes of trading. On a daily chart one candle is the whole session. The price data is the same. Only the grouping changes, and with it what you see.

The NSE session from 9:15 am to 3:30 pm is 375 minutes. That is 75 five-minute candles, 25 fifteen-minute candles or one daily candle. A lower timeframe gives more signals, smaller stop-losses and more noise. A higher timeframe gives fewer signals, wider stop-losses and moves that take longer to play out.

Intraday traders in India mostly work on 5, 15 or 30-minute charts. Swing traders use hourly or daily charts. The choice should follow how long you can hold and how much you can risk per trade, not which chart looks busiest. Bank Nifty on a 1-minute chart throws up many small swings that reverse before you can act on them.

The common mistake is switching timeframe in the middle of a trade. You take a buy on the 15-minute chart, price dips, and you drop to the 1-minute chart where everything looks like a sell. Then you exit at the worst point. Pick the timeframe before the entry and manage the trade on that same chart.