Mechanical Trading Systems: Pairing Trader Psychology with Technical Analysis

DEFINING THE TIME FRAMES

Often traders will define themselves by the time frame of their positions. The problem is that there is no universally accepted definition of what separates long, intermediate, and short-term traders. For the sake of simplicity and consistency, I will designate some time parameters to each of these terms. As used in this book, long-term traders are those who attempt to profit from trends lasting anywhere from 1 to 6 months. Intermediate-term traders are those who hold trades from 10 days to 1 month, and short-term traders are those holding positions for less than 10 days.