This post is very intresting....
Firstly....I do trade for a living.....
and I use both methods.....4hr..on majors and 15min on volatile pairs.
In my own view..you need to find a method that works for you, I have cobbled together a system from trial and error over many years...
When you have a system stick to it and learn how to apply it to the pair, I see so many people try a system and within a week there rubbishing it, because it did not return a million a day and they did not get every pip profit there is..
When you look for a system look at the points...Entry..exit..drawdown..stop loss..etc..
you may see a system with a good entry but the rest does not suite you, fine look at others dont rubbish the whole system because it may work for other people with a different trading style to you..
Learn the pairs you intend to trade...ie...cable is often volatile at London opening...
And please learn the two most important things in Forex......Money mangement and Displine....
How many times have i seen people over trade to the point where they open a trade when there is no trade, then wonder why they lose money..
The fact is that not every day presents good trades.
I see also some debate on leverage...I found this item.
Leverage is a loan that is provided to an investor by the broker that is handling his or her forex account. When an investor decides to invest in the forex market, he or she must first open up a margin account with a broker. Usually, the amount of leverage provided is either 50:1, 100:1 or 200:1, depending on the broker and the size of the position the investor is trading. Standard trading is done on 100,000 units of currency, so for a trade of this size, the leverage provided is usually 50:1 or 100:1. Leverage of 200:1 is usually used for positions of $50,000 or less.
To trade $100,000 of currency, with a margin of 1%, an investor will only have to deposit $1,000 into his or her margin account. The leverage provided on a trade like this is 100:1. Leverage of this size is significantly larger than the 2:1 leverage commonly provided on equities and the 15:1 leverage provided by the futures market. Although 100:1 leverage may seem extremely risky, the
risk is significantly less when you consider that currency prices usually change by less than 1% during
intraday trading. If currencies fluctuated as much as equities, brokers would not be able to provide as much leverage.
Just my thoughts..
Glenn