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Participation Groups: The Four Timeframes of FTFC

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Definition A participation group is everyone who put on, added to, reduced, or exited a position during one timeframe window. The four major groups are the monthly, weekly, daily, and 60-minute. They are how we quantify full timeframe continuity, and each one has its own opening price.

Because four groups define continuity, we always look at at least four charts. One chart posted with “this looks good” shows one group and hides the other three.

The four major groups

  • Monthly: the largest group, the institutional group. The big move. One bar for the whole month.
  • Weekly: everyone active this week. One bar per week.
  • Daily: who is in control today.
  • 60-minute: who is in control right now. Each bar starts at the bottom of the hour, on the flip.

Each candle is a group of transactions, separated by time and price. Watch one year of MU build its yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly bars from the same trades:

MU 2026 aggregation playthrough: weekly bars across the top, and the same trades building the yearly, quarterly and monthly candles below $300 $300 $400 $400 $500 $500 $700 $700 $900 $900 $1100 $1100 $1300 $1300 Weekly Yearly Quarterly Monthly Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul 2026 Q1 Q2 Q3 J F M A M J J ● FTFC UP — last sale above the W, M, Q and Y opens ● conflict — at least one open above the last sale One price stream, four aggregations — MU 2026, day by day. Log scale.TheStrat.AI
MU 2026, real daily data. One price stream builds the week, the month, the quarter and the year at the same time.

Intraday participation groups

Below the four majors: the 60, 30, 15, and 5-minute groups. They gauge the smaller groups against the larger ones. The greater the volatility, the greater the importance of intraday continuity. In a fast market a 5 or 15-minute bar can show the movement of a normal day.

SPY June 9 2026 morning on the 60, 30, 15 and 5-minute charts: intraday continuity down, with each 15 and 5-minute bounce failing under the 60 and 30-minute opens72573073574074560-MIN72573073574074530-MIN72573073574074515-MIN7257307357407455-MINFTFC UP — all four timeframes greenFTFC DOWN — all four timeframes redCONFLICT — the timeframes disagreeOne fast morning. Four intraday groups: 60, 30, 15, 5.All four red: intraday continuity down.The 15 and 5 bounce. The 60 and 30 still sell.The bounce fails: all four red again.Each bounce fails under the 60 and 30 opens.A fast market: the small groups matter.SPY · June 9, 2026 · real dataopen of the bar in progressTheStrat.AI
SPY, June 9 2026, 9:30 to 13:00, real data (Alpaca SIP), built from the 5-minute stream. The same 4-of-4 test on the intraday groups.

Not every group shows on a standard chart. Traders active from 15 after to 45 after the hour are also a 30-minute group. When price stays inside that window’s range, it is a sideways inside 30: no bar shows it, but the group is still in control.

The sets: same 4-of-4 structure, different windows

The three continuity sets: investing Y Q M W, standard M W D 60, intraday 60 30 15 5InvestingStandard FTFCIntradayYQMWD6030155Each set is four groups. Same 4-of-4 test, different windows.TheStrat.AI
Three sets, one 4-of-4 test. Check them all at once: Y Q M W D 60 30 15 5.

For the broad market to break down, FTFC has to flip down on the investing set first. The more aligned opens, the more groups are in profit in the same direction at the same time.

Related: Full Timeframe Continuity · The Opening Price · The Flip · Uncoupling
Next: The 4 C’s of continuity →
Back to: Full Timeframe Continuity →

TheStrat was developed by Rob Smith. These docs are written by Alex Sopa (AlexsOptions) and quote his teaching. Work in progress: spotted an error? Tell Alex.

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