Who are you and what do you offer?

I am an independent trader. I trade for a living the main US Indices, stocks and options.

On this web site I share my technical analysis of price charts of the main US Stock Indices as well as Crude Oil and Natural Gas.

You can subscribe to my service to get several updates a day on the US Indices, Crude Oil and Natural Gas with my detailed comments and predictions about the next price move in those instruments. I show what could be the direction of the move and draw target boxes to indicate potential targets for ongoing and expected swings in price.

What method of technical analysis do you use to predict market moves?

The only method I use is the Harmonic Elliott Wave Theory which is a modification of the classic Elliott Wave theory proposed by R.N.Elliott in 1930s. That modified version of the Wave theory was proposed by Ian Copsey, a veteran FX trader in 1990s.

What is the meaning of the Green Target Boxes and Red Target Boxes on your charts?

The Green Target Boxes are high probability reversal zones for corrective moves down. When you see a green target box that means the current count of waves (output of the Wave Analysis) considers that:

– the direction of the prevailing trend is up; and

– the current or expected decline is a temporary pullback; and

– price is expected to find support in that green target box; and

– after that pullback price may continue the move in the direction of the main trend.

The Red Target Boxes are high probability reversal zones for moves up.

The Harmonic Elliott Wave theory proposes that any trending move is subdivided into five waves ( please see the chart below ).

In addition, each wave A and C in direction of the trend should also be subdivided in five waves of a smaller size:

That chart above exemplifies a fractal nature of price moves. Any trending move in prices is just a combination of two interconnected fractals, Five Wave fractal and A-B-C fractal. That features of the fractals let you predict when a trending or corrective move may terminate. You can expect that price will keep moving along the Five Wave fractal until it has not completed the very final wave 5. Moreover, because you know that wave 5 has to have A-B-C internal structure you may pinpoint a termination point for the whole Five Wave structure when you zoom-in to its final wave C of 5. And because that C of 5 is by itself structured as Five Wave fractal on a smaller scale you can go to a micro level of 5 min chart to check when a large rally plays out enough waves to be considered completed. For example, you may follow a large Five Wave fractal on a Daily timeframe. That could e a rally lasted for several months. To predict when it is about to complete you count waves 1 up, 2 down, 3 up, 4 down and finally A of 5, B of 5. When you are about to start tracking the very last rally in wave C of 5 you may switch to hourly or 30 min chart to count smaller five waves i, ii, iii, iv and v that together comprise that final wave C of 5.

How You Find Location for the Green Target Boxes and Red Target Boxes?

As I explained, I draw Green Target Boxes and Red Target Boxes on my charts to show where the current or expected price move may terminate. The Green Target Boxes are high probability reversal zones for moves down. The Red Target Boxes are high probability reversal zones for moves up.

The Harmonic Elliott Wave theory proposes that any trending move in price follows a specific pattern called Five Wave fractal. Therefore, when price played out the whole fractal you may expect that the trending move is about to terminate. Corrective counter trend moves follow a number of specific patterns and their termination can also be predicted based on the same principle. 

Not only we may predict termination of the bigger price structures but also we may use that principle to predict termination of specific waves inside that fractal. For example, each wave A and C in direction of the trend should also be subdivided in five waves of a smaller size:

That chart above exemplifies a fractal nature of price moves. Any trending move in prices is just a combination of two interconnected fractals, Five Wave fractal and A-B-C fractal. That features of the fractals let you predict when a trending or corrective move may terminate. You can expect that price will keep moving along the Five Wave fractal until it has not completed the very final wave 5. Moreover, because you know that wave 5 has to have A-B-C internal structure you may pinpoint a termination point for the whole Five Wave structure when you zoom-in to its final wave C of 5. And because that C of 5 is by itself structured as Five Wave fractal on a smaller scale you can go to a micro level of 5 min chart to check when a large rally plays out enough waves to be considered completed. For example, you may follow a large Five Wave fractal on a Daily timeframe. That could e a rally lasted for several months. To predict when it is about to complete you count waves 1 up, 2 down, 3 up, 4 down and finally A of 5, B of 5. When you are about to start tracking the very last rally in wave C of 5 you may switch to hourly or 30 min chart to count smaller five waves i, ii, iii, iv and v that together comprise that final wave C of 5.

Not only Harmonic Elliott Wave theory provides you with a limited number of common patterns followed by price, but it also suggests a number of repeating ratios between waves inside those patterns. That lets you, first, to check whether you have correctly identified a fractal. Second, you can predict where the wave may terminate its progression based on those common ratios called extensions and retracements. 

The principle behind predictions is very straightforward, when price has played out the whole fractal you check if a wave has hit one of the common ratios to each other.  For example, one of the rules of the Five Wave fractal stipulates that wave 3 has to extend at least to 176.4% of the size of wave 1. Another example is wave 5 which tends to top at 76.4% or 85.4% of the distance covered by both, waves 1 and 3. 

When you learn those patterns and ratios between waves in those patterns then prediction of a target of a price move becomes an easy task. You simply count waves to align the actual price chart with the model fractal and check ratios between waves!

When you draw the Green and Red Target boxes, do you draw them on the time frame you think they will be achieved?

Unfortunately, the Elliott Wave theory does not provide us with any tool to predict timing of termination of price moves. I studied a number of other methods including cycles but none of them could be considered a reliable prediction tool. That is why I do not try to predict timing of reversals. We may try to predict at what level price may terminate its move. It can happen in a matter of days but may take several weeks or even longer.

What are the main ideas behind the Elliott Wave theory? Were there any scientific researches that proved robustness of the Wave principle?

Both, the classic and the modified versions of the Elliott Wave theory are based on the fundamental discovery made by R.N.Elliott in 1930’s. After reviewing numerous self-made price charts of stocks and commodities he noticed that price for different assets at different times kept followed a number of similar patterns. Specifically he noted that any trending move in the stock market followed a pattern he called the “Five Waves”. To make it possible to recognize that pattern R.N.Elliott identified five integral parts of that pattern and called them “waves” (see the chart below).

The waves 1, 3 and 5 drive the price in direction of the main trend. In up trend each of those waves drive price to higher highs. In a down trend each of those waves push price to lower lows. And waves 2 and 4 are temporary countertrend pullbacks. You can read more details about this pattern in my article.

But even more important breakthrough he made was the discovery of fractal nature of price structures. That means that the same price patterns combined together formed identical pattern on a larger scale.

As you can see on the chart above, Elliott proposed a theory according to which waves 1, 3 and 5 of the five wave fractal are themselves subdivided into five waves of a smaller size ( subwaves i, ii, iii, iv and v ).

In 1999 Ian Copsey, an experienced technical analyst who had been practicing the classic Wave Principle for years proposed a simple and elegant modification to the classic Elliott Wave theory. The main modification he made was that the the impulsive waves 1, 3 and 5 within the five wave fractal were subdivided into three waves rather than perfect five waves as proposed R.N.Elliott (see the chart below).

When R.N.Elliott introduced the repeating Five Wave fractal he acknowledged that he could not find any rational explanation of the fractal nature of the markets that kept playing out similar patterns:

“possibly the reason why I have not yet, and possibly will never know why this series occurs is because it is a law of nature. The laws of nature, and incidentally economics, are ruthless, which is as it should be.”

Thirty years later, in 1962, Everett Rogers, a professor of rural sociology, published his book “Diffusion of Innovations”. This book was based on his findings in research that examined how ideas are spread among groups of people. He identified five major stages of adoption of innovation, new idea, product or practice by members of a given culture. Rogers found out that new ideas are not adopted by all individuals in a social system at the same time. It takes different time for different people to begin using the new idea. He proposed a classification of all the members of a society into five groups based on criteria of how long it takes for them to begin using the new idea.

Since its start in rural sociology, Diffusion of Innovations has been applied to numerous contexts, including medical sociology, communications, marketing, development studies, health promotion, organizational studies, knowledge management and conservation biology.

In my opinion, we may apply tenets of the diffusion theory to financial markets in order to explain different stages of a trending move by type of investors who drive the price at different stages of rallies. Our goal would be to align the basic five wave up fractal proposed by the Harmonic Elliott Wave theory with classification of social groups proposed by Rogers.

“Innovators” or “Reversal Hunters” or “Contrarian”.

Innovators are the first customers to try a new product. They are, by nature, risk takers and are excited by the possibilities created by new ideas and new ways of doing things. Innovators are the first 2.5 percent of a group to adopt a new idea.

In financial markets they are “reversal hunters” or “contrarians”. They can’t stand a sustained trending move. They love to oppose themselves to the general prevailing sentiment in the market. They buy when most others are selling and sell when others are buying. They are risk takers and tend to buy too early in the bear market and short too early in the bull market. But they are financially and emotionally prepared to withstand pressure of the market. As Rogers noted: “The innovator is also willing to accept the occasional setback when new ideas prove unsuccessful.” (Rogers, 1971).

That concept perfectly explains why wave 1 of a new developing trend is always weak. The driving force behind the wave 1 of a new trend is “innovators”. There are only few innovators, traders who believe that preceding decline is over and a new trend is under way. The majority of market participants still feels bearish and considers that first move up off a major low made by preceding decline as an opportunity to add to their shorts.

“Early Adopters” or “Experts”

“Early adopters tend to be integrated into the local social system more than innovators. People in the early adopter category seem to have the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems. They provide advice and information sought by other adopters about a novelty. The early adopter is usually respected by his or her peers and has a reputation for successful and discrete use of new ideas” (Rogers, 1971).

Early adopters will normally have a reasonably high social status. Think of all those traders who post their trading ideas and market analysis on Twitter, Stocktwits or Tradingview and have tens of thousands of followers! They are thought leaders who are considered experts and trusted by thousands of other traders. They do not take as much risk as innovators and tend to make more careful decisions as to whether or not to call a start of a new bullish trend. They will be waiting to get solid confirmation like a bullish cross of the major moving averages. That does not happen in the wave 1 up but it happens in the second leg of an unfolding rally, wave A of 3 up. On average there are 13.5% of a social group who could be considered “Early Adopters”.

“Early Majority” or “Momentum Traders”.

“Members of the early majority category will adopt new ideas just before the average member of a social system. They interact frequently with peers, but are not often found holding leadership positions. As the link between very early adopters and people late to adopt, early majority adopters play an important part in the diffusion process. Their innovation-decision time is relatively longer than innovators and early adopters, since they deliberate some time before completely adopting a new idea. Seldom leading, early majority adopters willingly follow in adopting innovations” (Rogers, 1971).

When price breaks out over the preceding top of the wave A of 3 the rally starts to accelerate and pullbacks become very shallow. This is when the rally finally begins to draw attention of wide crowds of so called “momentum” traders. This type of traders is reasonably risk averse and wants to be sure that their, often more limited, capital is invested in assets that may quickly appreciate in price. They never try to anticipate a reversal but rather look for an established strong trend to join. They have an active social status but they are not thought leaders. They not only follow the “experts” but early adopters quite often closely communicate with them. When they make decision about joining the very well established trend they take into account opinions of those thought leaders.

“Late Majority”

“The late majority are a skeptical group, adopting new ideas just after the average member of a social system. Their adoption may be borne out of economic necessity and in response to increasing social pressure. They are cautious about innovations, and are reluctant to adopt until most others in their social system do so first. An innovation must definitely have the weight of system norms behind it to convince the late majority. While they may be persuaded about the utility of an innovation, there must be strong pressure from peers to adopt” (Rogers, 1971).

In financial market this group of traders is too conservative to join a rally when it is accelerating in wave C of 3. They are too cautious and their main concern is not to buy “too late” or “at the top”. They would wait for a pullback of a corrective wave 4 down to buy stocks on weakness.

This category of traders has less interaction with thought leaders ( “Early Adopters” ) and tends to make more independent decisions than the other groups of traders. This late majority group is rarely active in the social media, does not have many followers and, as a result, does not provide any form of thought leadership for other traders.

That may be a good explanation why rally in wave A of 5 driven by “Late Majority” is almost never is strong enough to break over the preceding top made by the rally in wave 3. The “Late Majority” got burned trying to play breakouts many times. That is why they buy stocks on weakness and see them when prices approaches important resistance at previous top.

“Laggards are traditionalists”.

“Laggards are traditionalists are the last to adopt an innovation. Possessing almost no opinion leadership, laggards are localite to the point of being isolates compared to the other adopter categories. Individual laggards mainly interact with other traditionalists. An innovation finally adopted by a laggard may already be rendered obsolete by more recent ideas already in use by innovators. Laggards are likely to be suspicious not only of innovations, but of innovators and change agents as well” (Rogers, 1971).

Laggards are always late to the party. They are the driving force of the final wave C of 5 that completes the whole rally. This is the last spike of price before reversal.

At this point innovators turn skeptical about prospects of this rally and start watching for signs of reversal. This last rally literally drags the laggards into the market when price takes out the previous top made by the wave 3 up. At that point laggards can not longer resist the growing temptation to join that bullish party they have been watching on sidelines. They do not have much available capital to trade and this is why the top of the final spike in wave C of 5 is normally characterized by thin trading volume and participation. This final move up in many cases comes as a spike because at this point the vast majority of traders except for innovators are convinced that this rally will keep going up. Conversely, bears are demoralized by continuation of the rally and they are often forced to close their shorts when price takes out the previous top. That lack of sellers lets such weak buyers as “laggards” to push price to new higher highs despite relatively low amount of fresh buying.

In my opinion, this theory perfectly explains why markets keep re-playing the same patters.

How the Harmonic Elliot Wave theory can help in trading?

The Harmonic Elliott Wave theory proposed that every trending move in price follows the “Five Waves” pattern (please see the chart below). 

Waves 1, 3 and 5 (in blue color)  move price in direction of the trend. And waves 2 and 4 (in red color) are temporary pullbacks in counter trend direction. There are three features of the theory that let us make predictions about the following moves in price. 

First, we confidently know that the price will keep moving in direction of the trend until all five waves play out. 

Second, the Five Wave fractal has a distinctive look because there are clear rules regarding each segment of the pattern (called “waves“) and repeating precise math ratios between the waves. 

For example, the strongest part in any rally is the wave 3, a part of the rally in the middle of the move. With practice you will start to recognize that pattern at a glance. Once you recognize a pattern and a specific current wave you will be able to start making predictions about the next move, a wave that should follow according to the Five Wave pattern. For example, you know that every year has four seasons. You know that spring follows winter, and summer follows spring and then will be autumn that will turn in winter. That is a repeating sequence of seasons in nature. Using that sequence you can predict what season will follow summer. In the same way the Five Wave pattern is a repeating natural sequence that is followed by price of any trending asset on any time frame, from 1 minute charts to monthly charts.

Finally,  waves 2, 3, 4 and 5 are related to preceding waves by a number of repeating ratios which can be derived from Fibonacci numbers. For example, wave 3 normally terminates when its length equals either to 176.4% or 223.6% of length of wave 1. To confidently predict when a rally can terminate you only need to identify when waves 1, 2, 3 and 4 are played out and the only wave fifth is left. And then you need to apply several common ratios to identify potential levels where the final wave 5 can get terminated. Because of clear rules and simplicity of this methodology it takes a trained trader only 2 – 3 minutes to make a high probability prediction for a stock, futures or crypto currency even if he sees them the first time in his life.

The traditional Elliott Wave theory seems to have an overabundance of rules and guidelines and that appears to open the door subjectivity. Is the Harmonic Elliott Wave more straightforward?

Frankly, I think the real problem of the classic Elliott Wave theory that it does not have enough strict rules and has too many acceptable exceptions. Elliott wanted to make his theory too perfect and in addition to his main idea that all trending moves are structured as the Five Wave fractal he proposed that waves 1, 3 and 5 are also structured as the very same Five Wave fractal but on a smaller scale ( please see the chart below).

As you can see on the chart above, waves 1, 3 and 5 are composed of five smaller waves i, ii, iii, iv and v. By proposing that idea Elliott discovered a fractal nature of price moves. His breakthrough was that the same similar patterns combined together form the same patterns on a larger scale! The theory was supposed to make trading and investing as easy as counting from one to five! Indeed, you sell when you can count five micro waves up and you buy again at lower price when you get an a-b-c shaped corrective move down! The same set of riles can be applied to price charts of any time frame, from 5 min to a monthly one. What could have been easier?

It seems like pretty soon Elliott realized that the five wave fractal could not explain every trending price move either up or down. The Five Wave fractal was simply too perfect to be found in every market and any time frame. He and followers of his traditional theory found many cases where the final wave 5 did not have that perfect subdivision into five smaller waves. And then practitioners of the classic Elliott Wave theory called such case a “truncation”. In plain English it sounds like: “Oops, the theory can’t explain this so lets agree its a rare exception. Lets find a fancy name for that unfilled gap in the theory not to apologize for our inability to nail the top.”

On the chart above you will see that the final wave 5 up is subdivided into three smaller waves instead of five waves as prescribed by the Classic Elliott Wave theory.

You may say I exaggerate the problem because truncations happen at the very top of the five wave up fractal or very bottom of the five wave down fractal. But let me remind you that the main benefit of the theory was to provide a trader with a mighty yet simple-to-use prediction tool based on assumption that any larger wave or subwave in direction of the trend has to be be subdivided into five waves. Some protagonists of the classic theory may say that I misunderstood the idea behind that method. However, Elliott himself became known for several accurate predictions about exact tops and bottoms in the Industrials index in 1935.

One of the most valuable principles of the theory was that the final fifth wave can not stop until it fully replays its own five wave structure of a smaller degree. By complete its own waves i, ii, iii, iv and v wave 5 gets completed and finalizes the whole bigger five wave up fractal.

I personally got fooled by that theory many times. I expected any wave 5 up to keep pushing price higher until I could finally count five micro waves inside it. And then suddenly after micro wave iii of 5 price would collapse… That could mean that you might have followed that unfolding five wave up fractal for weeks preparing to short its completion in anticipation of a larger corrective move in counter trend direction only to see it collapsed prematurely! And I used to be left behind mumbling to my followers that according to the theory we really needed one more high in micro wave v of 5…

Imagine your boss assigns you a specific task but you perform only 66% of what he said. And then time comes to report and you present a partially completed job explaining that you have truncated the task. Would your boss be pleased with that type of explanation? I was certainly not!

More exceptions to the theory

But that was only the beginning of the problems with the real life application of the Classic Elliott Wave theory. Pretty soon practitioners of the classic theory found waves in direction of the main trend that were supposed to be structured as impulsive waves and to follow the five wave fractal but they did not. Instead they were just a bunch of a-b-c’s, three wave moves. Did that observation make Elliott or his followers to change the tenets of the theory? Of course not! They called those uncomfortable cases when the theory did not work “exceptions”. This is how they introduced the “Leading Diagonal” and the “Ending Diagonal”.

“Leading Diagonal” can be found on the chart above at the beginning of the five wave fractal, in wave 1. As you can see, the five micro waves i, ii, iii, iv and v together compose a large wave 1 up. But note that each of those five micro waves, impulsive and corrective alike, is composed of three waves a-b-c instead of canonical five micro waves.

“Ending Diagonal” can be found at the very end of the five wave fractal, wave 5. Again, as you can see on the picture below, all the five micro waves that compose wave 5, impulsive and corrective alike are composed of three micro waves a-b-c.

At this point I want to remind you that the main idea behind the Classic Elliott Wave theory was that price follows a specific repeating five wave fractal and impulsive waves within that fractal are composed of five waves of a smaller degree. However, as we can see, the author and practitioners of the classic Elliott Wave theory had to admit that the main assumption of that theory just did not work all the time…

Many people do not like the classic Elliott Wave theory because of “overabundance of rules and guidelines“. I do not agree. I am thoroughly convinced that in contrast the main problem of the classic Elliott Wave theory is that it does not have enough rules and leaves too much for subjective interpretation.

In contrast, the Harmonic Elliott Wave theory does not have so many exceptions. It does not allow for “truncations”, “Leading Diagonals” or “Ending Diagonals“. The Harmonic Elliott Wave theory has a simple yet solid foundation which is all trending moves have to be structured as five waves up or down and each of those five subwaves is subdivided into three subwaves a-b-c!

Why the Harmonic version of the Elliott Wave theory is much less known than the classic version proposed by R.N. Elliott?

The classic version of the Wave Principle was popularized by Robert Prechter who published a number of books refining findings of R.N.Elliott. This is because of his work the classic theory is well known and widely practiced. Ian Copsey, who proposed simple yet important modifications to the classic theory and called the modified version the “Harmonic Elliott Wave theory”never was that active in promoting his findings to the mass market of retail investors.

What makes the Harmonic Elliott Wave theory a great trading tool?

What makes Elliott Wave theory a powerful prediction tool is (1) repeating and recognizable patterns and (2) repeating ratios between different waves. First you recognize a trending ( so called impulsive ) or corrective pattern and then you simply have to count five waves in any trending move and counter check your count with very specific rules applying to any five wave fractal. 

The theory has a set of very strict and clear rules about allowed depth of pullbacks in a trending moves. That provides you with opportunity to find high probability reversal zones and set precise stop orders to protect your capital in case your count is wrong.

Because waves in the Five Wave fractal follow a number of specific ratios a trader can make confident predictions about areas where waves may get terminated.

To make those predictions you measure waves on the charts and project the distance multiplied by a number of repeating ratios. It only takes you a moment to do that. You just click the lowest and highest points of preceding completed waves. Fibonacci projection and retracement drawing tools are standard instruments available in any charting platform including Tradingview which is probably the best free charting on-line platform. 

How you can use Elliott Wave theory as a trading tool if it fails to explain and predict every single move?

 It’s a huge misconception that Elliott Wave theory has to explain EVERY move! For some reason practitioners of the classic Elliott Wave first set that expectation which later became a trap for themselves and their followers. Let me ask you this. Do you want to get a good trading setup or you would rather want me to keep telling you a story? The Harmonic Elliott Wave theory is about price following specific patterns or fractals. There are reliable fractals like the Five Wave fractal. And there are less reliable corrective patterns. You shall not expect the same accuracy of predictions when using the HEW principles in analyzing impulsive and corrective waves! In my personal opinion, Elliott’s main discovery was the Five Wave fractal. He had to offer some explanation for corrective waves that connect impulsive waves. But, again, the true strength of the Elliott Wave Principle in the discovery that any trending move follows the Five Wave fractal. Ask an Elliott Wave analyst whom you have been following about his own preference in terms of a specific trading setup. Let me tell you what kind of an answer you are going to get. First they will tell you “buy any corrective wave in anticipation of another impulsive wave”. And that is a big BS because it does NOT answer your question. It’s like “buy when it is cheap and sell when it is expensive”. The second answer is “Buy the 3rd wave”. They love to say that! Let me tell you a painful truth. After years of applying the Wave principle and having counted tens of thousands of charts I do not have clear rules that would make that a high probability trading setup! That is surely a setup with a potentially high payback but at the same time that is not a high probability winning setup! In conclusion, my personal approach to practicing Elliott Wave theory is that you use the wave principle to find trading setups, not to explain every single squiggle drawn by price!

Do you use any indicators to confirm your wave analysis or help you in trading?

It is remarkable that once I got proficient in the Harmonic Elliott Wave theory I naturally stopped using any indicators! Let me offer you why indicators will always be less efficient than wave analysis. 

If you go to China you basically have two options. You can hire an interpreter and hope that he or she will be making accurate translation for you. Another option is to learn Mandarin by yourself. If you learn the language you will be able to talk to locals without waiting for interpretation and without any distortion. If you learn the Harmonic Elliott Wave theory you will understand the language the price talks! 

You will not longer need RSI or MACD to interpret what price tries to tell you! People use RSI to spot divergence between price and indicator. But such signals may get you in trouble because they may show you divergence in the middle of relentless rally in wave 3. You may short it and will be watching price keep climbing higher without pullbacks. Divergence may work in wave 5 because it is always shorter than wave 3. But wave analysis lets you identify that final rally and even set high probability targets without checking any indicator. For me all the indicators are useless. They only consume precious space on my screen and distract my attention from what really matters, the price!

What are the best time frames to apply wave analysis?

Wave Analysis works on every single time frame! You can count waves on monthly, weekly, daily, hourly charts. But you can also apply Harmonic Elliott Wave counts to 1 minute chart or even to data-based charts. Tick volume and range bar charts are examples of data-based chart intervals. These charts print a bar at the close of a specified data interval, regardless of how much time has passed:
– Tick charts display a specified number of transactions;
– Volume charts indicate when a certain number of shares or contracts have traded;
– Range bar charts separate candles or bars when a pre-determined amount of price movement has occurred.
The choice of a time frame purely depends on your trading style. If you are a micro scalper you may trade 5 min chart as the main time frame but you should be using 1 min chart for entries. It is advisable to always check at least two higher time frames in order to check the true direction of the trend. You can go higher to hourly chart and two- or four- hour charts.
For example, if you prefer to trade in the direction of the trend, you first check hourly chart for an unfolding Five Wave fractal. Then you go to a lower time frame, let’s say 15 min chart. And when you are ready to execute a trade you may go even lower to 5 min chart to micro count a completion of a wave you track on 15 min chart.
If you are a long-term investor you may watch weekly charts for patterns, then keep tracking them on daily and execute on hourly.