Big Chart for Direction, Small Chart for Entry
How top-down (multi-timeframe) analysis works on a real gold example from 23 October 2026. The 1-hour chart showed lower highs and a sweep above $4,047.8. The 5-minute chart then gave the entry, the stop and a target at two times the risk.
Key points
Direction (1-hour): lower highs at $4,118.7, $4,107.2 and $4,047.8 on 22 Oct 2026; price stopped just under $4,047.8 twice, then the 13:00 UTC candle on 23 Oct swept to $4,050.2 and closed back below at $4,037.0.
Entry (5-minute): the 13:20 candle took the high at $4,050.2, then the 13:25 candle closed at $4,040.4, below the last small low ($4,043.4).
The trade: entry $4,040.4, stop $4,051.2 above the sweep high ($10.8 risk), target $4,018.8 (2R), reached by the 14:15 candle without touching the stop.
One 4-hour candle holds sixteen 15-minute candles: the same move with more detail. Use the higher timeframe for direction and the lower one for timing. A past example for education, not a signal.
Chart data: COMEX gold futures 1-hour and 5-minute OHLC (UTC), 22-23 Oct 2026. Education only, not a signal.
Read more: Multi-Timeframe Analysis for XAUUSD: Top-Down Bias, Setup and Entry Frameworks · Liquidity Sweeps on XAUUSD: How Gold Stop Runs Work
Transcript
Most traders lose because they look at only one timeframe.
This is one four-hour candle. Inside it, sixteen fifteen-minute candles. Same move, more detail.
The big chart gives direction. The small chart gives entry. Here, one-hour and five-minute. A past example, not a signal.
On the one-hour, gold made lower highs. Price kept stopping under $4,048. Then one candle poked above, and fell back. A sweep.
Zoom into the five-minute. Price takes the high at $4,050, then breaks back down. Entry at $4,040. Stop above the high, $4,051. Target, two times the risk, $4,019.
Within an hour, it hits. Big chart for direction. Small chart for entry. Save this.
