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Top-Down Alignmentdirection from the daily, entry from the intraday

Evidence: ModerateIntermediateMulti-timeframe · Continuation

The standard three-timeframe structure, written out properly. The daily chart decides whether you may trade and in which direction. The four-hour decides where. The fifteen-minute decides when.

Each timeframe answers exactly one question and is not allowed to answer any of the others. That restriction is the strategy — without it, three charts simply give you three chances to talk yourself into a trade.

Two timeframes are not two opinions. A daily chart and an hourly chart of the same instrument contain the same prices — the higher one is useful when it supplies something the lower one cannot see, and decorative when it only repeats it.

Category
Multi-timeframe · Continuation
Timeframe
D1 direction · H4 level · M15 trigger
Suitable pairs
Any liquid major · gold with a wider stop
Session
Trigger taken in London or New York only
Indicators / tools
EMA(50) on D1 · a support or resistance area on H4 · ATR(14) on M15 for the stop

Valid setup

MT-01 · TOP-DOWN ALIGNMENT — VALID SETUP EURUSD · M15 · the daily allows the direction, the H4 supplies the level, the M15 supplies only the moment LONG 1.07682 1.07881 1.08079 1.08278 1.08476 1.08675 1.08873 DAILY: CLOSE ABOVE THE EMA(50) — longs permitted all session H4 AREA — price must reach this or there is no trade TP1 = 2R 1R — M15-sized, not daily-sized TP1 = 2R ENTRY = M15 trigger, inside the H4 area STOP = 1.5 × ATR(14) on M15 1 2 3 4 1.08758 1.08290 1.08056 ① Daily says long-only — that is its entire contribution ② H4 area reached — the second question is answered ③ Neither chart is allowed to supply the trigger ④ M15 trigger fires inside the area — enter ⑤ Stop sized on the M15, which is why 2R is reachable ⑥ Managed on the H4 from here — stop watching the M15

Exact rules

Entry

  • Daily: close above the EMA(50). Longs only. No other daily condition, and the daily chart has no further say.
  • H4: mark the nearest area price is pulling back into — a prior swing, a level with two touches. Price must reach it. If it does not, there is no trade, regardless of how good the intraday chart looks.
  • M15: the trigger — an engulfing close, a failed break of the low, whatever you have defined. Written down in advance, one definition only.
  • If the daily flips while you are waiting, the setup is dead even if the H4 and M15 are perfect.

Stop loss

  • 1.5 × ATR(14) on M15, below the trigger structure.
  • This is the entire point of the three-chart method: daily context, intraday stop distance. The same trade taken purely on the daily would need a stop five times wider.
  • Risk 0.5%–1%.

Take profit / exit

  • TP1 at 2R — reachable precisely because the stop is intraday-sized.
  • The rest targets the next H4 structure above, trailed on the H4 close.
  • The trade is managed on the H4 once it is open. The M15 has done its job and looking at it again only produces early exits.

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More from Multi-timeframe

Higher-Timeframe Level, Lower-Timeframe Triggerthe level is the edge; the trigger is the discountWeekly Bias, Daily Executionone decision a week, then get out of the wayTimeframe Divergencewhen the fast chart disagrees with the slow one

Trading carries risk and most retail accounts lose money. Nothing on this page is financial advice or a recommendation to trade. The chart is an illustration of the rules on constructed candles — it is not a record of a trade and not a backtest.