Multi-timeframe analysis is the practice, in technical analysis, of studying the same instrument on charts of two or more time intervals before making a trading decision. A typical arrangement uses a longer interval, such as the weekly or daily chart, to identify the prevailing trend, and a shorter one, such as the hourly chart, to time entries and exits. A trader might accept a buy signal from a moving average crossover on the hourly chart only when the daily chart is also rising.
The reasoning is that a signal agreeing with the larger move is more reliable than one against it, and that the longer chart filters noise from the shorter. The method suits swing trading and intraday styles alike. Its weaknesses are that different intervals often conflict, and that each added condition is another parameter that can be tuned to past data. In automated tests, reading a higher-interval bar before it has closed introduces look-ahead bias.