Intra-Day Charts & The Myth of ‘Noise’

One of the greatest ‘myths‘ out there (or mis-information) is price action on the lower time frames (below 1hr charts) is just ‘noise‘. This is a highly confused notion of price action trading and nothing could be further from the truth.
Prop traders are often trading below the 1hr time frames every day, oftentimes on the 1m, 3m or 5m charts. Bank traders will often be highly active, also trading on the lower TFs. They do this while also building up large swing positions they hold for weeks, perhaps months to trade with the trend. Same goes for desk traders and institutional ones alike.

The bottom line is, professional traders are trading off all time frames. There is no ‘holy grail’ of time frames. There is no bastion of good signals that only exist on the higher TFs (daily and 4hr charts) while anything below the 1hr chart is just ‘noise’ or garbage. High quality signals exist on all time frames, and traders are making money on virtually every time frame you can imagine. The ‘noise’ idea you’ve been told is a myth.
Sorry to kill the sacred cow – but those espousing the freshman idea only good signals exist on the daily/4hr charts clearly do not understand price action.

The idea of noise existing on a particular time frame comes down to the lack of one thing – training. I will use an analogy to demonstrate this point.
Foreign Tongues & Cryptography
If I am walking down a street in my home country, I will understand what people are saying. Why? Because I speak the language. I have been trained to.
Now put me on a busy street in Finland or Mongolia, and I will have no idea what they are saying. Their conversations will sound like noise to me. In fact almost any language that is unrecognizable to me will sound like ‘noise’.
Why? Training.
But give me six months to a year learning that language, and what before sounded like ‘noise’, will now sound like a conversation. It will have information, meaning and a familiarity to it. I will be able to understand and recognize what they are saying. The only difference between the two scenarios, is training.
Same goes for cryptographers (those who translate coded communications). What may sound like noise to me and you, is actually a hidden message or code for them. Again – the only difference between us and them is training.

It Comes Down To This
If you have been only trading the higher TFs, then for a little bit, the lower TFs will look like ‘noise’ to you. You will not understand the differences, the rhythms, and how the information is expressed a little differently. But through training, practice and experience, you will start to understand the code.
What you will find are great intra-day signals, key levels, and how the intra-day price action flows. You will spot opportunities and see patterns. With a little effort, practice and training, the ‘noise’ of those time frames will start to become clear and trades will start to pop out to you. With proper training comes an improved trading mindset.
That is not to say you should or have to. I always recommend finding what is most natural to you, your availability, and inclinations. That could be only on lower TFs, higher ones, or a mix of both. Everyone will have a sweet-spot. It is up to you to find that.
To be clear, I am not saying this comes easily, but nothing in trading ever does. It takes patience, work, practice and training, but it certainly can be done.
Hence do not believe the confused freshman ideas there are boogeymen down there. I have many students trading the intra-day charts successfully several times a day while maintaining accuracy and profitability. There is no reason why you cannot do the same.