Hey Everyone,

I'm trying to find a good intraday time frame to use as my primary frame of reference for intraday stock trading. The standard ones people use are 1,2,3,5,15,30min, hourly. Has anyone tried using "non-standard" time frames and what was your experience?

I'm thinking 17 min vs. 15 min, 7min vs. 5 min, 33min vs. 30min etc.

With the prevalence of algorithmic trading and computers trying to take advantage of the conventional wisdom of the masses I would think they would be targeting the standard time frames that come as default in any charting package.

By looking past a 30 min chart by a few minutes, could that help to clear out the noise / confusion that occurs as masses decide what to do as that 30 min bar closes and a new one begins?

This might not make any sense and I apologize if its been covered. Just something I was thinking about....

timeframe is mostly irrelevant intraday. those algos you speak off are often based on spread games or various types of s/r, which are timeframe independent. you will not gain an edge/disadvantage by adjusting your timeframe by a few min's.