How To Use Tradingview Like An Expert [For Beginner Traders]

TradingView is one of the most popular charting and trading platforms used by retail traders today. With its wide range of features, customizability, and access across devices, TradingView provides traders with advanced charting capabilities for analyzing the financial markets.

However, for beginner traders just getting started, the platform can seem overwhelming at first. There are countless indicators, drawing tools, customization options that can make it hard to know where to begin.

That’s why in this complete TradingView tutorial, we’ll cover everything you need to know as a novice trader to start leveraging TradingView like a pro. You’ll learn the basics of navigating the platform, utilizing the charting tools, executing trades, setting up custom layouts and indicators, and more.

By the end, you’ll have a solid foundation for harnessing the power of TradingView to take your trading to the next level. 

Navigating the TradingView Platform

When you first open up TradingView, you’ll see a blank chart window and sidebar on the left with different options.

Here’s an overview of the main areas of the platform:

1. Chart Window – This main space is where you’ll load up the candlestick charts and add any drawings or indicators. You can toggle between line charts or candlestick charts using the icon above the chart.
2. Timeframes – Along the bottom you can quickly toggle between timeframes from 1 minute all the way to 1 month. The current timeframe will be bold.
3. Symbol Search – In the top left you can search for any instrument symbol to pull up a chart. Click the star icon to save symbols to your watchlist.
4. Chart Settings – Configure chart properties like style, scaling, overlays here.
5. Indicators – Add or remove indicators and manage settings here.
6. Drawings – Access drawing and annotation tools here.
7. Styling – Customize chart colors, styles and visibility options.
8. Alerts – Get alerted on price movements or indicator patterns.
9. Templates – Save and load custom chart templates.
10. Chat – Communicate with other traders in chat rooms.
11. Scripts – Run custom scripts developed by community members.
12. Watchlists – Track favorite instruments from global markets in real time watchlists.
13. Account – Connect brokerage accounts to trade from the platform.

In addition to the left sidebar, there are also tabs across the top for Market Overview, Screener, Radar, Fakeouts, Groups, Ideas, Chats and More that provide additional functionality.

Now that you’re familiar with the layout, let’s go over how to utilize the charting tools effectively.

Configuring the Charts

When first opening a chart in TradingView, you’ll want to make sure the settings are configured for your trading needs:

1. Candle vs. Line Chart – Toggle between candlestick and line chart using the icon above the chart. Candlesticks provide more information on price movements.
2. Interval – Set the timeframe along the bottom toolbar – 1 min, 5 min, 1 hour etc. Lower intervals for shorter term trading, higher for positional trading.
3. Extended Hours – Toggle this on to see pre/post market price action outside of regular trading hours.
4. Indicator Panel – Choose to display indicators underneath or side-by-side by clicking the 3 line icon on the indicator panel.
5. Volume – Add a volume overlay to see volume traded at each price level.
6. Scales – Adjust price scaling (linear, log, percent) and visibility options as needed.
7. Appearance – Customize chart colors, wick and candle styles, gridlines etc. through the styling toolbar.
8. Max/Min – Display highest and lowest values on y-axis rather than auto-scaling.

Play around with these settings over time to configure charts exactly how you like them. Keep things simple and clean when first starting out.

Utilizing Drawing Tools

TradingView has a robust set of drawing tools built-in to annotate charts. Here are some of the most commonly used tools:

1. Trendlines – Draw sloped support/resistance lines by connecting multiple price points.
2. Horizontal Lines – Draw horizontal support/resistance lines across chosen price levels.
3. Channels – Draw parallel trend channels encompassing price movements.
4. Shapes – Highlight patterns or areas of interest using rectangles, circles and basic shapes.
5. Fib Retracements – Plot potential retracement levels based on Fibonacci ratios.
6. Text – Add text annotations to highlight key levels or patterns.
7. Pitchforks – Draw Andrew’s pitchfork centered on a swing point to identify potential trend reversals.

To access drawing tools, select the “magnet” icon from the toolbar on the left. Make sure to organize your drawings carefully by deleting old levels and maintaining only the most relevant on the chart at any time.

Adding Indicators

Indicators are mathematically-derived visualizations designed to help traders analyze price charts for trends, momentum, volatility and more. TradingView has 100+ built-in indicators you can quickly add to charts.

Some of the most popular beginner indicators are:

1. Moving Averages – Plot short and long-term average prices to identify direction and support/resistance levels.
2. MACD – Track convergence/divergence of short and long-term moving averages.
3. RSI – Measure price momentum on a 0-100 scale using relative strength.
4. Bollinger Bands – Plot price channels based on volatility around a moving average line.
5. Stochastics – Analyze momentum using crossing ‘signal’ and ‘stoch’ lines.

To add an indicator, select the “folder” icon in the left toolbar and search for the indicator by name or by category. For now, keep it simple and only add 1-2 key indicators to avoid over-complicating the charts. Focus on interpreting just these indicators well over time.

Make sure to read the descriptions and adjust default settings as needed based on the security and timeframe you are analyzing. For example, use longer lookback periods for higher timeframe charts.

Executing Trades

Once you’ve analyzed the charts and are ready to place trades, TradingView provides a few different options:

1. Connected Broker – For fully automated trading, connect your brokerage account to execute live trades through TradingView. Requires broker integration.
2. Trade Panel – Enter manual trades (limit, market etc.) through the trade panel in the bottom toolbar of the chart. Send orders to your broker.
3. Tradingview Broker – Open a TradingView brokerage account to trade directly through their integrated brokerage platform.
4. Alerts – Get notified and manually execute when certain trade conditions are met.

Make sure to thoroughly test things out with a paper trading account before placing live trades. And always stick to your risk management rules.

For beginners, consider sticking to just analyzing the charts in TradingView and executing the actual trades through your preferred brokerage platform until you gain more experience.

Creating Custom Layouts

One of the most powerful features of TradingView is the ability to create fully customized workspace layouts. You can save and load templates with multiple chart windows, indicators, drawings and tools configured for your workflow.

Some ideas for custom layouts:

1. Multiple Timeframes – Chart the same security in different timeframe windows (1 min, 15 min, 1 hour) for both short and longer-term context.
2. Multiple Securities – Load different, correlated securities like an index, sector, commodity, stock, forex pair etc. in each window.
3. Segmented – Break up one chart into segmented windows for isolation (market profile, volume, RSI, stochastic etc.)
4. Personalized Indicators – Craft that perfect combination of 2-3 key indicators you love using.
5. Custom Workspaces – Dedicated layouts for analysis, supported trading, scalping, backtesting etc.

The possibilities are endless. Set up different layouts on multiple tabs accessible through the tabs at the top. Give your layouts descriptive names to stay organized.

Building Your Own Indicators

While TradingView has hundreds of indicators built-in, one of the most unique capabilities is building your own custom indicators using Pine Script.

Pine Script is TradingView’s proprietary coding language that lets you transform trading ideas into visualizations in just a few lines of code.

A few types of custom indicators you can build:

1. Moving Averages – Create customized moving averages based on different price inputs and methodologies.
2. Oscillators – Code momentum oscillators using various lookback periods and value ranges.
3. Shapes and Patterns – Programmatically identify chart patterns and mark them with visual shapes.
4. Alerts and Signals – Script custom alerts when certain indicator conditions are met.
5. Strategies – Code basic entry and exit strategies driven by indicator signals.

While Pine Script is beginner-friendly, it still requires basic coding knowledge. Start by modifying small chunks of open source scripts before building indicators completely from scratch.

The Pine Script community has thousands of free scripts and indicators to browse through for ideas. Custom coding your own indicators is avaluable skill for unlocking the full potential of TradingView.

Maximizing Alerts and Scanners

To make the most of TradingView, it’s important to take advantage of the platform’s extensive alerting and scanning capabilities.

1. Price Alerts – Get notified when price reaches a specified level or when a candlestick pattern forms. Set alerts for potential entries, exits or risk levels.
2. Indicator Alerts – Trigger alerts on indicator events like crossovers, divergences or overbought/oversold readings.
3. Screeners – Scan the entire market for stocks matching technical or fundamental conditions. Save your custom screeners.
4. Alarm Manager – Carefully manage all alerts in one place, including parameters and notifications.
5. Email/SMS Notifications – Get alert notifications sent instantly to your phone or email for time-sensitive events.
6. Smart Notifications – Use machine learning to get notified on the most relevant high probability alerts based on your trading strategy.

Properly configuring and managing alerts takes some work but is worth it. Alerts allow you to stay on top of opportunities across the market, even when not at your desktop.

Accessing TradingView on Multiple Devices

One of TradingView’s best features is that it works seamlessly across devices – PC, Mac, linux, iOS and Android mobile apps, and any modern web browser.

This allows seamless access to your charts, layouts, watchlists and alerts from anywhere. All cloud sync’d.

1. Desktop – For active trading and in-depth chart analysis, the desktop apps and web version can’t be beat in terms of screen real estate and full suite of tools.
2. Web – Pull up TradingView in any browser when away from your normal desk setup. Sign in to access your account.
3. Mobile – On your phone, the TradingView apps provide a robust charting experience for quick checks of the market on the go.
4. Tablet – Get more screen size to trade and analyze charts effectively via the TradingView tablet app. Leverage the convenience of a touchscreen.

Make sure to customize your workspace and indicators for smaller mobile screens. Use saved templates to quickly adapt any layout to the current device.

Cross-device access gives you tremendous flexibility to never miss an opportunity, wherever you are.

Advanced Tips and Shortcuts

Here are some pro tips for streamlining your TradingView workflow:

1. Chart History Shortcuts – Press the left/right arrow keys to quickly scroll through price history on the chart. Use the spacebar to toggle between play and pause.
2. Shortcut Keys – Learn the shortcut hotkeys for each drawing tool and indicator to work more efficiently. Hover over each item to see its shortcut.
3. Chart Syncs – Click the sync icon in the bottom toolbar to connect multiple chart windows for synchronized panning and zooming.
4. Pine Script Debugging – Use print() statements when coding Pine Script to output debug messages to the log pane below the chart.
5. Trading from Charts – Right-click on the chart to execute trades directly from the price candles without opening the trade panel.
6. Save as Default Template – Set a custom template as the default so it loads automatically whenever you open a new chart.
7. Third-Party Integrations – Connect platforms like Excel, Google Sheets, Discord etc. via API to externalize your TradingView data and alerts.

Put in the time to continually master TradingView’s capabilities and you’ll have one of the most versatile trading platforms at your fingertips to gain an edge.

Key Takeaways

The key points to remember from this TradingView tutorial for novice traders:

• Utilize the charting tools effectively – candle vs. line charts, multiple timeframes, drawings, indicators, scaling etc. Start simple.
• Practice interpreting basic indicators like moving averages, MACD, RSI, Bollinger Bands before adding more advanced tools.
• Paper trade manually or connect your broker account when ready to execute live trades through the platform.
• Create custom layouts, workspaces and templates to maximize your workflow. Sync charts and save defaults.
• Build your own indicators with Pine Script to realize TradingView’s full potential.
• Manage alerts and scanners to never miss opportunities across any market.
• Access TradingView seamlessly across devices – desktop, mobile, tablet, web.
• Implement advanced power user tips and shortcuts to work efficiently.

By mastering TradingView one step at a time, beginner traders can leverage professional-grade tools to elevate their analysis, strategies and ultimately their performance. Use this guide as a roadmap to transform yourself into a TradingView power user.

Wrapping Up

TradingView provides an incredibly robust charting, analysis and trading platform accessible to traders of all skill levels. While the sheer depth of tools may seem overwhelming as a beginner, this guide has equipped you with the key fundamentals to begin utilizing TradingView like a pro.

Start applying what you’ve learned today. Fine tune your chart setups, analyze price action, run your trading strategies. As you gain more experience, introduce more advanced features at your own pace.

With persistent practice, you’ll be surprised at how intuitively TradingView will begin to feel. The journey to consistently profitable trading requires skill and tools. With TradingView in your toolkit, you now have an invaluable resource to realize your potential on the markets.