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Getting Started with TradingView

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Creating Your Account

  1. Visit TradingView.com
  2. Click on “Join Now” or “Sign Up” in the top right corner
  3. Choose to sign up with email, Google, or other social accounts
  4. Select a username that will represent you in the community
  5. Verify your email address

Exploring the Interface

When you first log in, you’ll see the main chart interface with several key areas:

  • Top toolbar: Search for symbols, access account settings, and various features
  • Left sidebar: Watchlists, alerts, and saved chart layouts
  • Chart area: The main workspace where you’ll analyze price movements
  • Bottom panel: Timeframes, drawing tools, indicators, and other features
  • Right sidebar: Community ideas, news, and chat (can be hidden)

Understanding Charts

Selecting a Symbol

  1. Use the search bar at the top to find your desired market (e.g., “AAPL” for Apple stock)
  2. Type the ticker symbol or company name
  3. Select from the dropdown results
  4. The chart will automatically update to show the selected asset

Chart Types

TradingView offers several chart types, each with specific advantages:

  • Candlestick charts: The most popular choice, showing open, high, low, and close prices
  • Bar charts: Similar information as candlesticks in a different format
  • Line charts: Simplified view connecting closing prices
  • Heikin Ashi: Modified candlesticks that help identify trends
  • Renko charts: Focus on price movements while filtering out noise

To change chart types:

  1. Click on the chart type icon in the toolbar (default is candlestick)
  2. Select your preferred chart style from the dropdown menu

Timeframes

Timeframes determine the period each candlestick or bar represents:

  1. Find the timeframe selector at the bottom of the chart
  2. Options range from 1-minute to monthly charts
  3. Click on your desired timeframe (common choices for beginners: 15-minute, 1-hour, 4-hour, and daily)

Navigating Charts

  • Zoom: Use the mouse wheel or pinch gestures on touchscreens
  • Pan: Click and drag the chart to move left/right or up/down
  • Reset view: Double-click on the chart area
  • Expand view: Click the “Full screen” button to maximize chart area

Essential Tools for Beginners

Drawing Tools: A Comprehensive Guide

TradingView’s drawing tools are essential for technical analysis and identifying trading opportunities. Here’s an in-depth look at how to use them effectively:

Accessing Drawing Tools

  1. Find the drawing toolbar on the left side of your chart
  2. Click on any tool icon to activate it
  3. Hover over icons to see tool names
  4. Click the three dots at the bottom of the toolbar to see additional tools

Essential Drawing Tools in Detail

Trendlines

Trendlines help identify the direction and strength of trends:

  1. Select the trendline tool from the drawing toolbar
  2. For uptrends: Click on a significant low, then drag to a higher low
  3. For downtrends: Click on a significant high, then drag to a lower high
  4. Extend the line into the future to project potential price movements
  5. Right-click on the line to:
    • Change line color and thickness
    • Add labels
    • Extend left/right
    • Set as semi-transparent
    • Enable “Ray” mode to extend infinitely

Pro tip: Use multiple trendlines to identify channels where price might bounce between support and resistance.

Horizontal Lines

Perfect for marking key support and resistance levels:

  1. Select the horizontal line tool
  2. Click at the price level you want to mark
  3. Right-click to access properties:
    • Change line style (solid, dashed, dotted)
    • Add price labels
    • Change colors
    • Create alerts directly from the line

Best practice: Use different colors for major and minor support/resistance levels (e.g., red for major resistance, orange for minor resistance).

Fibonacci Retracement

A powerful tool for identifying potential reversal points:

  1. Select the Fibonacci Retracement tool
  2. For uptrends: Click at the significant low, then drag to the significant high
  3. For downtrends: Click at the significant high, then drag to the significant low
  4. The tool will automatically draw horizontal lines at key Fibonacci levels (0%, 23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8%, 100%)
  5. Right-click to customize:
    • Change which Fibonacci levels are displayed
    • Adjust colors and line styles
    • Add price labels
    • Add background colors between levels

Advanced tip: Combine Fibonacci retracements with key support/resistance levels for stronger confirmation of potential reversal points.

Pitchfork

The Andrews’ Pitchfork tool helps identify potential support and resistance levels within a trend:

  1. Select the Pitchfork tool
  2. Place the first anchor point at a significant high or low
  3. Place the second anchor point at the following reaction high/low
  4. Place the third anchor point at the next reaction high/low in the original direction
  5. The tool creates a channel with median line and parallel channels
  6. The upper and lower lines often act as support/resistance
Rectangle

Useful for identifying trading ranges and chart patterns:

  1. Select the Rectangle tool
  2. Click and drag from one corner to the opposite corner
  3. Use to highlight:
    • Trading ranges
    • Chart patterns (flags, pennants)
    • Support/resistance zones
  4. Right-click to customize:
    • Fill color and opacity
    • Border style
    • Add text labels
Text and Notes

Add annotations to your charts:

  1. Select the Text tool
  2. Click where you want to add text
  3. Type your note and press Enter
  4. Drag to reposition
  5. Right-click to:
    • Format text (size, color, font)
    • Add background
    • Anchor text to price or bar
Brush Tool

Useful for highlighting areas of interest:

  1. Select the Brush tool
  2. Click and drag to draw freehand
  3. Use for circling patterns or highlighting important chart areas
  4. Right-click to adjust color and line thickness

Managing Your Drawing Objects

  1. View all objects: Click on the “Object Tree” icon in the top toolbar
  2. In the Object Tree panel you can:
    • Select/deselect multiple objects
    • Lock objects to prevent accidental movement
    • Hide/show specific objects
    • Delete objects individually or in groups
    • Organize objects into folders

Drawing Templates

Save time by creating drawing templates:

  1. Create your drawing objects with desired styles
  2. Right-click on any object
  3. Select “Save Drawing Template”
  4. Name your template
  5. Access saved templates from the drawing toolbar

Indicators: Comprehensive Guide

Indicators are mathematical calculations based on price and/or volume that help traders identify potential entry and exit points. Here’s how to master TradingView’s indicator capabilities:

Adding Indicators

  1. Click the “Indicators” button at the top of the chart (looks like fx)
  2. In the Indicator & Strategies window:
    • Use the search bar to find specific indicators
    • Browse categories in the left panel
    • Click the “Built-ins” tab for TradingView’s native indicators
    • Click the “Public Library” tab for community-created indicators
  3. Click on an indicator name to add it to your chart
  4. After adding, an indicator settings window appears for customization

Essential Indicator Categories

Trend Indicators
Moving Averages
  1. Types available:
    • Simple Moving Average (SMA): Equal weight to all prices
    • Exponential Moving Average (EMA): More weight to recent prices
    • Weighted Moving Average (WMA): Linearly weighted toward recent prices
    • Hull Moving Average (HMA): Responds faster to price changes
  2. Common settings to adjust:
    • Length: Number of periods to calculate the average (e.g., 20, 50, 200)
    • Source: Price point to use (close, open, high, low, HL/2, etc.)
    • Color and thickness
  3. Popular configurations:
    • 20 and 50 EMA for short-term trends
    • 100 and 200 SMA for long-term trends
  4. Strategy example: Golden Cross (50 SMA crosses above 200 SMA) and Death Cross (50 SMA crosses below 200 SMA)
MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence)
  1. Settings to adjust:
    • Fast length (usually 12)
    • Slow length (usually 26)
    • Signal smoothing (usually 9)
  2. How to interpret:
    • MACD line crossing above signal line: Potential buy signal
    • MACD line crossing below signal line: Potential sell signal
    • Divergence between MACD and price: Possible trend reversal
    • Histogram increasing: Momentum increasing
    • Histogram decreasing: Momentum decreasing
ADX (Average Directional Index)
  1. Settings:
    • Length: Typically 14 periods
    • Smoothing: Usually 14
  2. How to interpret:
    • ADX above 25: Strong trend
    • ADX below 20: Weak trend
    • +DI above -DI: Bullish
    • -DI above +DI: Bearish
Momentum Indicators
RSI (Relative Strength Index)
  1. Settings:
    • Length: Typically 14 periods
    • Overbought level: Usually 70
    • Oversold level: Usually 30
  2. How to interpret:
    • RSI above 70: Potentially overbought, watch for selling signals
    • RSI below 30: Potentially oversold, watch for buying signals
    • Divergence: If price makes new high but RSI doesn’t, possible reversal
Stochastic Oscillator
  1. Settings:
    • %K Period: Usually 14
    • %K Smoothing: Usually 1
    • %D Period: Usually 3
  2. How to interpret:
    • Values above 80: Overbought
    • Values below 20: Oversold
    • %K crossing above %D in oversold territory: Potential buy signal
    • %K crossing below %D in overbought territory: Potential sell signal
Volatility Indicators
Bollinger Bands
  1. Settings:
    • Length: Typically 20 periods
    • Standard Deviation: Usually 2
    • Source: Typically close price
  2. How to interpret:
    • Price touching upper band: Potentially overbought
    • Price touching lower band: Potentially oversold
    • Bands squeezing together: Low volatility, potential breakout coming
    • Bands expanding: Increasing volatility
ATR (Average True Range)
  1. Settings:
    • Length: Typically 14 periods
  2. How to interpret:
    • Higher values: Higher volatility
    • Lower values: Lower volatility
    • Use for setting stop-loss distances (e.g., 2x ATR)
Volume Indicators
Volume Profile
  1. Settings:
    • Range: Fixed or visible range
    • Number of rows: Detail level of the profile
  2. How to interpret:
    • Wide areas (high volume): Potential support/resistance
    • Point of Control (POC): Price with highest trading volume
    • Thin areas: Potential for quick price movement
On-Balance Volume (OBV)
  1. Settings: Minimal settings to adjust
  2. How to interpret:
    • OBV rising with price rising: Confirms uptrend
    • OBV falling with price falling: Confirms downtrend
    • Divergence between OBV and price: Potential reversal

Customizing Indicators

Every indicator can be customized in multiple ways:

  1. Right-click on the indicator on your chart
  2. Select “Settings” to open the properties panel
  3. Adjust settings specific to that indicator
  4. Visual settings:
    • Change colors, line thickness, and style
    • Adjust opacity
    • Change indicator position (overlay on chart or separate pane)
  5. Click “Apply” to see changes before confirming
  6. Click “OK” to confirm changes

Saving Indicator Templates

Create preset indicator configurations:

  1. Add an indicator and customize it
  2. Right-click on the indicator
  3. Select “Save As Template”
  4. Name your template
  5. Access saved templates by clicking “Indicators” → “Templates”

Creating Indicator Combinations

Powerful analysis often combines multiple indicators:

  1. Add your first indicator (e.g., 200 SMA)
  2. Add your second indicator (e.g., RSI)
  3. Add more indicators as needed
  4. Save the entire setup as a chart layout for future use

Advanced Indicator Features

Multi-Timeframe Analysis

View indicators from different timeframes on your current chart:

  1. Add your indicator (e.g., RSI)
  2. In settings, find “Resolution” or “Timeframe”
  3. Change to desired timeframe (e.g., 1D on a 15-minute chart)
  4. This shows the daily RSI while you’re looking at 15-minute candles
Comparing Multiple Instruments

Compare indicators across different assets:

  1. Add your first asset and indicator
  2. Click “Compare” in the top toolbar
  3. Add another symbol
  4. Add the same indicator to both
  5. Use the “Format” button to adjust colors for clarity
Creating Custom Indicators

For advanced users with Pine Script:

  1. Click “Pine Editor” at the bottom of the screen
  2. Create a new script or modify existing ones
  3. Write your indicator logic in Pine Script
  4. Click “Add to Chart” to apply your custom indicator
  5. Save your script for future use

Watchlists

Create watchlists to track multiple assets easily:

  1. Find the “Watchlists” tab in the left sidebar
  2. Click the “+” button to create a new watchlist
  3. Name your watchlist (e.g., “Crypto Favorites,” “Tech Stocks”)
  4. Search for symbols and click “+” to add them
  5. Click on any symbol in your watchlist to load it on the chart
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