TradingView Basics

A good map app lets you zoom out to see the whole country, then zoom in to find one street. TradingView does that for markets. You can see ten years of a stock's history on one screen, then zoom into the last hour, all from your browser. It is where many traders do their charting, planning and practice, even if they place real trades somewhere else.

What is TradingView?

TradingView is a charting platform that runs in your web browser, with desktop and mobile apps too. It covers stocks, forex, crypto, indices and commodities from markets around the world.

• There is a free plan and several paid plans. The free plan is plenty for learning.
• Some exchange data is delayed on the free plan, so check whether the price you see is live. Do not place real trades off a delayed chart.
• You can connect certain brokers to trade directly from the chart, but you do not have to. Many people use TradingView only for analysis.

Chart basics

When you open a chart, you will see:

• Symbol search at the top left. Type a name like EURUSD, or a stock or index name, and pick the right market from the list.
• The price scale on the right and the time scale along the bottom.
• Chart type selector at the top. Candlesticks are the default and the best place to start.
• Drawing tools down the left side.
• Watchlist and alerts in the panel on the right.

Timeframes

The timeframe sets how much time each candle represents: 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, 1 day, 1 week and more. Change it from the menu at the top of the chart.

A sensible habit is a top-down look:

1. Start on the weekly or daily chart to see the big picture: trend, major support and resistance.
2. Move down to the 4-hour or 1-hour chart to plan a more precise entry.

Beginners usually do better on higher timeframes. There is less noise, fewer false signals and more time to think before acting.

Drawing tools

The left toolbar is where you mark up your chart. The ones you will use most:

• Trend line: connect swing lows or swing highs.
• Horizontal line or ray: mark a support or resistance level.
• Rectangle: mark a support or resistance zone, which is often more realistic than a single line.
• Long and Short Position tools: draw an entry, stop loss and target, and TradingView shows the risk, reward and ratio for you. Brilliant for planning.
• Text and notes: write down why you marked something.

Drawings stay in place when you switch timeframes, so a level drawn on the daily chart also shows on the 1-hour chart.

Indicators

Click Indicators at the top of the chart and search for what you want, such as "Moving Average" or "Relative Strength Index." The free plan limits how many indicators you can add to one chart. That is honestly a helpful limit: as the Charts course explained, one trend tool and one momentum tool are usually enough.

Watchlists and alerts

• A watchlist is your shortlist of markets. Add five to ten symbols you want to follow closely, rather than hundreds you barely know.
• An alert notifies you (by app notification, pop-up or email) when price reaches a level you choose. Alerts mean you do not have to stare at the screen waiting for something to happen.

Paper trading on TradingView

TradingView has a built-in Paper Trading account. Open the trading panel at the bottom of the screen and choose Paper Trading to get a virtual balance. You can reset it and pick a starting amount, so set it close to what you would realistically trade with.

You can then place buy and sell orders straight from the chart, attach a stop loss and take profit, and see every trade in your history.

Worked example: a 15-minute practice routine

Say you have set your paper account to $3,000.

1. Open your watchlist of five markets: EUR/USD, one major index and three large stocks you know.
2. On the EUR/USD daily chart, draw a rectangle around support near 1.0800 and another around resistance near 1.0950.
3. Use the Long Position tool to plan a trade: entry 1.0815, stop loss 1.0785, target 1.0905. The tool shows 30 pips of risk, 90 pips of reward, and a ratio of 3.0.
4. Set an alert at 1.0815, then close the laptop. No need to watch.
5. If the alert fires and the setup still looks valid, place a paper buy of 10,000 units (a mini lot, $1 per pip) with the stop and target attached. Your risk is 30 × $1 = $30, which is 1% of your $3,000 paper balance.
6. Write it down in your journal: why you took it, the plan, and later the result.

Repeat that routine for a few weeks and you will learn more than from months of random clicking.

Risk note: Paper trading on any platform skips the real costs and real emotions of live trading. Treat it as practice for process, not proof that a strategy will make money.

Key takeaways

• TradingView is a browser-based charting platform with a capable free plan; watch out for delayed data.
• Start on higher timeframes and work down for a top-down view.
• Use rectangles for zones and the Long/Short Position tools to plan risk and reward.
• Keep indicators few, watchlists short, and let alerts do the watching.
• Use Paper Trading with a realistic balance to practise your full routine.

Up next: MetaTrader Basics, a guided tour of MT4 and MT5, the platforms offered by most forex brokers.