Understanding Intervals

When analyzing a ticker chart, a user might notice that the chart options include intervals. Let's dive into what these are and how they affect one's goals and outlook.

A typical chart displays the asset price on the Y-axis and time on the X-axis. Not all assets have been around the for the same length of time, and not all time is created equally. Perhaps you want to zoom out and see the last 5 years of an asset, or zoom in and only see the last 5 hours. In doing so, you will change the interval view on the chart.

Normally, these are displayed as candles, but a user can also choose to view a line chart. A 4-hour interval chart will display candles where each candle is a period of 4 hours. Similarly, a 1-day interval will have candles of 1-day each. A 4-hour chart is illustrated below:

Put simply, a user who wants to quickly trade and has a low time-horizon will choose to trade in a shorter interval. A trader with a long-term outlook will choose a longer interval. We have found the 4-hour interval to be the happy medium and the best interval on which to day-trade.

At Noiseless Signals, we utilize an external API that offers the following intervals, which we pass on to our clients with paid accounts:

Further reading can be found here.
Happy trading!