Instead of discussing MTF as a generic checklist, this post looks at how four classic technical-analysis voices handle the same problem: why lower-timeframe signals feel convincing and still fail in practice.

1) John J. Murphy: Read the Bigger Current First

Murphy is often associated with building technical structure across markets, and his practical lesson on MTF is the same: separate what each timeframe is supposed to do. A weekly or daily frame describes trend context; an intraday frame describes execution timing. Once these get mixed, a sharp move in a lower frame is often misread as a directional change. In other words, lower-frame signal quality depends on higher-frame agreement.

2) Alexander Elder: The Point of the Triple Screen Is Filtering

Elder’s Triple Screen is best understood as a three-step filter: identify higher-frame trend, confirm against a middle frame, and only then trade on the lower frame. The method is not about collecting more entries; it is about creating a disciplined filter that blocks false urgency.

3) Martin J. Pring: Time Cycles Matter More Than a Single Candle

Pring’s cycle-based view reminds us that each timeframe moves through different phases. So first identify where the higher cycle is, then read the lower timeframe as “how the cycle might realize,” not as an independent command. That makes the difference between mistaking temporary pullbacks for structural reversals.

4) Bill Williams: A Fractal Is Not an Invitation, It Is a Context Device

In the Bill Williams framework, fractals and Alligator methods are used to find structure, not to remove the need for context. A clean lower-timeframe pattern may still be noise if the higher frame is structurally unstable. In practice, a fractal gains meaning only when the broader frame can justify why that move should matter.

The shared thesis of these four viewpoints is simple: higher frame defines scenario, mid frame validates coherence, lower frame controls timing. When this stack collapses, MTF becomes exhausting.

A useful routine can be:

• Step 1: Set direction bias on the higher frame (for example weekly/daily).
• Step 2: Check whether current price action is acting in line with that framework.
• Step 3: Execute only when lower frames align on timing.

The goal is not to collect more signals. It is to build a filter that rejects the wrong ones.

1k_scanner is not a document or receipt scanner. It is a Rust + egui-based multi-market, multi-timeframe trading workflow app, designed to keep your analysis path consistent by reducing context-fragmentation rather than adding more raw signals.