Beginners Guide To TradingView

Published: Dec 29, 2022 Est. read time: 4 minutes

In this guide, we're going to cover how to sign up and use some of the core features of TradingView. We will go through the process of signing up for a TradingView account if you don’t have one already.

We will add some indicators to charts, use watch lists and some of the other basic but must-know tools available on the platform.

What is TradingView? As you’re here you probably already have an idea as to what TradingView is but I’ll summarize it how I see it. Simply put it is a tool for clearly reading chart data for almost every asset from crypto, indices, and stocks. Honestly is probably the single most important tool in any investor's toolset. It has by far the most chart data, tools and social features of any charting platform. It offers a completely free plan which is more than enough to get you started on your journey. A paid plan really isn’t necessary until you get deeper into trading and want to take advantage of the enhanced features offered.

By clicking links to TradingView in this article you'll get $30 towards your plan should you wish to upgrade to a paid plan within the next 90 days. Or you can of course go directly by typing in www.tradingview.com into your browser without my referral link. Entirely your choice.

First things first. Let’s fire up tradingview.com and click on the "Sign Up" button in the top right corner of the page. From here, you will be prompted to enter your email address and create a password. Once you have done that, click on the "Sign Up" button to complete the process. You can use the social sign-up if you’re that way inclined.

Now that you have an account let’s take a look around.

The first thing I like to do is configure dark mode and check out some of the basic settings such as notifications.

Let’s open a chart!

• Click in the search box or the "Symbol" + field at the top of the page.
• Type in the name or ticker of the asset you want to view, and press enter. In this example, I’ll open BTC.
• It's usually best to pair with USDT and where possible use Binance
• The chart for the selected asset will be displayed on the page.
• Alternatively, you can open a chart from the TradingView homepage by clicking on the asset you want to view in the "Markets" section.
  

How to add indicators

An indicator is a visual guide to see how an asset is performing. Let's take a look at how to add indicators to a chart. To do this, first select the asset you want to view by clicking on the "Symbol" field at the top of the page and typing in the name or ticker of the asset. Once you have selected an asset, the chart for that asset will be displayed.

To add an indicator to the chart, click on the "Indicators" button in the toolbar at the top of the page. This will open a menu of available indicators. Select the indicator you want to add by clicking on its name. Let’s use EMA as an example. A window will appear where you can customise the settings for the indicator. Once you have set the desired settings, click "Apply" to add the indicator to the chart.

Now that we have added an indicator to the chart, let's take a look at some of the tools available on TradingView. One useful tool is the drawing tool, which allows you to draw trend lines, shapes, and annotations on the chart. To access the drawing tool, click on the "Drawing" button in the toolbar at the top of the page. From here, you can select the type of drawing tool you want to use and then draw on the chart by clicking and dragging your mouse.

The measure tool

The feature I use the most is, without a doubt, the measure tool.
Simply click on the ruler icon and then click and drag on the chart to measure move. There is also a shortcut you can use by simply holding 'shift' when clicking around in the chart.
Not only does this measure the percentage move, it also shows the time the move took.

Another useful tool on TradingView is the "Compare" function, which allows you to view multiple assets on the same chart for comparison. To use this feature, click the "Compare" button in the toolbar and then type in the names or tickers of the assets you want to compare. The chart will then display the selected assets side by side.

Watch lists

Another really useful feature is the watchlist. This allows you to keep an eye on particular assets from the sidebar without going to the symbol and searching each time.

You can create a watch list on TradingView, by following these steps:

• Click on the "Watchlist" button in the toolbar at the top of the page.
• In the watchlist menu that appears, click on the "Create New Watchlist" button.
• Type in a name for your watchlist and press enter.
• To add symbols to your watchlist, click on the "Add Symbol" button and type in the name or ticker of the asset you want to add. Repeat this process to add multiple assets to your watchlist.
• To view your watchlist, click on the "Watchlist" button again and select the watchlist you want to view from the menu.
• You can also create and manage your watchlists from the TradingView homepage. Just click on the "Watchlists" tab in the top menu and use the options in the left-hand panel to create and manage your watchlists.

Trading View may look complicated at first glance, but by exploring around you'll soon get to grips.