Sophisticated technical indicators evolve from simple data inputs of price and time. While most traders understand how price patterns reveal hidden opportunity, many fail to comprehend how time impacts both tactics and results. Lacking a skilled understanding of opportunity cost, they misinterpret signals and waste valuable resources. Or, trapped in common trend relativity errors, they prepare trades in one time frame but execute them in another.
Opportunity cost defines how the trader manipulates working capital.
For example, this important concept reveals why cutting losses efficiently is so important for long term survival. By its nature, taking any stock position dictates that those funds will not be available for another trade. This becomes a critical issue on account drawdowns when individual trades can dictate success or failure for the aspirant. All trends in the markets are time frame specific. For example, the existence of an uptrend in a daily chart says nothing about the trend in the monthly or intraday chart.