TradingView Like a Pro: A Deep Dive into Mastering Your Chart Settings
Hey everyone, hope you're doing awesome. If you've ever opened up TradingView & felt a bit overwhelmed by ALL the buttons, menus, & options, you're not alone. Honestly, it's a beast of a platform, which is great because it's so powerful, but it can be a lot to take in at first. The thing is, getting your charts set up just right isn't just about making them look pretty—it's about creating an environment that helps you analyze the markets faster & more effectively.
I've spent a TON of time tinkering with every setting imaginable, & I'm here to share what I've learned. We're going to go from the absolute basics to some seriously advanced setups that can give you a real edge. So, grab a coffee, get comfy, & let's geek out on some chart settings. By the end of this, you'll be able to customize your TradingView experience to your exact needs, making your trading life a whole lot easier.
The Foundation: Getting Your Workspace Set Up
First things first, let's get the basic look & feel of your chart sorted. A clean, easy-to-read chart is crucial. You don't want to be straining your eyes or getting distracted by clutter.
Choosing Your Theme: Light vs. Dark Mode
The age-old debate: light mode or dark mode? Honestly, there's no right or wrong answer here; it's all about personal preference. I personally prefer dark mode, especially for late-night sessions, as it's easier on the eyes. To switch, just click the three lines in the top-left corner & toggle "Dark color theme" on or off. It's the very first thing I do on a new setup.
Decluttering the Canvas
Out of the box, TradingView charts come with grid lines. Some people like them, but I find they just add unnecessary noise. Let's get rid of them for a cleaner look. Right-click on your chart, go to "Settings," & then head to the "Canvas" tab. You'll see options for "Grid lines." I set both the vertical & horizontal lines to 0% opacity. This gives you a nice, clean slate to work with.
While you're in the "Canvas" settings, you can also play around with the background color. You can choose a solid color or even a gradient. I stick with a simple, dark gray, but feel free to experiment & find what works for you. You might also see a watermark of the symbol on your chart. I find this distracting, so I turn it off in the "Canvas" settings as well.
Customizing Your Candles & Price Action
Now that we have a clean canvas, let's focus on the most important part: the price data itself. How you display your candles can make a big difference in how you interpret price action.
Candle Colors & Style
The default green & red candles are classic, but you can customize them to your heart's content. In the chart settings, under the "Symbol" tab, you'll find options for the body, borders, & wicks of your candles. I like to make my bullish candles a clean white or light blue & my bearish candles a solid red. Some traders even make the wicks a different color to stand out. The key is to find a color scheme that is clear & doesn't cause any emotional bias.
You can also choose to have hollow candles by reducing the opacity of the body. This can be a nice visual touch. It's all about what makes the chart easiest for YOU to read.
Beyond Candlesticks
While candlesticks are the most popular chart type, TradingView offers a bunch of others. In the top menu, you can switch to bar charts, line charts, area charts, Heikin Ashi, & more. It's worth playing around with these, especially the line chart for identifying trends & the Heikin Ashi for smoothing out price action.
A cool, lesser-known setting is "Color bars based on previous close" under the "Symbol" settings. This will color a candle based on whether it closed higher or lower than the previous day's close, which can give you a different perspective on the trend's strength.
Setting Up Your Scales & Axes
The price & time scales on the sides of your chart are more customizable than you might think. Getting these right can help you see the bigger picture & analyze price movements more accurately.
Log Scale: The Long-Term Trader's Best Friend
If you're looking at long-term charts, you absolutely NEED to be using the logarithmic scale. At the bottom right of your chart, you'll see a "log" button. When you enable it, the price scale adjusts to show percentage changes rather than fixed dollar changes. This gives you a much more realistic view of long-term growth & prevents price action from getting compressed at the bottom of the chart. For short-term trading, a linear scale is fine, but for investing or swing trading over months or years, log scale is a game-changer.
Essential Scale Settings
Right-click on the price scale to access its settings. Here are a few key adjustments I always make:
- Move scale to left: I prefer having my price scale on the left side of the chart, but this is purely personal preference.
- Countdown to bar close: This is a super useful feature, especially for day traders. It shows a timer on the price scale counting down to the close of the current candle.
- Labels & Lines: You can add labels for the high & low price, as well as lines for the previous day's close. This can be helpful for identifying key levels without having to draw them manually.
Tailoring TradingView for Your Trading Style
Okay, now we're getting into the nitty-gritty. The best chart setup for a long-term investor is going to be very different from what a scalper needs. Let's break down some specific setups.
For the Day Trader & Scalper
If you're a day trader, speed & efficiency are everything. You need to see the right information at a glance & be able to act quickly.
- Extended Trading Hours: This is non-negotiable for stock traders. By default, TradingView only shows the regular market session. To see pre-market & post-market data, right-click, go to "Settings," then "Symbol," & under "Session," select "Extended trading hours." You can even customize the colors of the extended session backgrounds to make them stand out.
- Multiple Timeframes: As a day trader, you're constantly switching between different timeframes. Instead of using the dropdown menu every time, you can add your favorite timeframes to a quick-access toolbar. Just click the arrow next to the current timeframe & star your favorites (e.g., 1m, 5m, 15m, 1h). They'll then appear at the top of your chart for one-click access.
- Multi-Chart Layouts: This is where things get really powerful. With a paid TradingView plan, you can have multiple charts open in the same window. This is amazing for multi-timeframe analysis. You could have a 15-minute chart on the left & a 1-minute chart on the right, for example. This allows you to see the overall trend while executing on a lower timeframe. You can even sync the symbol & crosshair across all charts in the layout.
- Instant Order Placement: If you trade directly from your TradingView charts, you can enable "Instant orders placement" in the trading settings. This removes the order confirmation pop-up, allowing for faster entries & exits. This is a MUST for scalpers.
For the Swing Trader & Investor
If you have a longer time horizon, your focus is more on the bigger picture & less on the intra-day noise.
- Naked Charts: Many successful swing traders use "naked" charts, which means they have very few or no indicators. Their focus is purely on price action, support & resistance levels, & chart patterns. A clean chart setup is essential for this style.
- Daily & Weekly Timeframes: Just like day traders, you should star your preferred timeframes for quick access. For swing trading, these would typically be the daily, weekly, & maybe the 4-hour charts.
- Drawing Tools & Templates: You'll be drawing a lot of trend lines, support & resistance zones, & Fibonacci retracements. We'll get into creating templates for these in a bit, but it's a huge time-saver.
- Events & News: In the chart settings under "Events," you can display things like earnings, dividends, & splits directly on your chart. This is super helpful for understanding what might be driving a big price move.
TradingView has a massive library of indicators & drawing tools. Organizing & customizing them is key to an efficient workflow.
That little toolbar on the left side of your chart holds all your drawing tools. Instead of digging through the menus every time you need a trend line, you can create a favorites toolbar that floats on your chart. Just find the tool you use often, click the star next to it, & it will be added to your custom toolbar. I have my trend lines, horizontal rays, rectangles, & Fibonacci retracement tool on mine. It saves SO much time.
Creating Drawing Templates
This is a pro-tip that will change your life. For any drawing tool, you can create & save custom templates. For example, I use rectangles to mark out support & resistance zones. I have a template for a support zone with a green background & another for a resistance zone with a red background, both with 20% opacity.
To do this, draw a rectangle, style it exactly how you want it, & then in the settings for that drawing, you'll see a "Template" option. Click "Save as..." & give it a name. Now, whenever you draw a rectangle, you can just apply that template with one click. You can do this for trend lines, text, position tools—everything.
Indicator Templates
Just like with drawings, you can also save templates for your indicators. If you have a specific set of moving averages you use, or a custom-configured RSI, you can save it as a template. This is a huge time-saver when you're setting up a new chart. Just click the "Indicator Templates" icon (it looks like a folder) at the top of your chart & save your current indicator setup.
The Power of Layouts & Templates
Now let's bring it all together. The real magic happens when you start saving your entire chart setup as a layout.
Saving & Loading Chart Layouts
Once you have your chart looking exactly how you want it—theme, candles, indicators, drawing tools, everything—you need to save it as a layout. In the top right corner, there's a button that looks like a cloud. Click it & select "Save chart layout."
You can create multiple layouts for different purposes. For example, you might have:
- A "Day Trading" layout with multiple charts & specific indicators.
- A "Swing Trading" layout with a clean daily chart.
- A "Crypto Research" layout for analyzing different coins.
You can even create layouts specific to a particular asset.
Sharing Your Charts
Ever wanted to share your analysis with a friend or a trading group? TradingView makes this super easy. Just click the camera icon in the top right corner. You can then get a link to an image of your chart, save the image directly, or even tweet it out. You can also share a live, interactive version of your chart by enabling sharing in your layout settings. This is an amazing feature for collaboration.
Leveling Up Your Business with AI
Speaking of efficiency & powerful tools, it's not just our trading charts that can be optimized. Many businesses struggle with providing instant, 24/7 support to their customers & engaging with website visitors effectively. This is where tools like AI chatbots come in.
For businesses looking to improve their customer service & engagement, Arsturn is a fantastic solution. It allows you to build a no-code AI chatbot that's trained on your own data. Imagine having a chatbot on your website that can instantly answer customer questions about your products, provide support, & even help with lead generation, all while you're focused on other things. It’s like having a super-efficient employee who works around the clock. By automating these interactions, businesses can provide a better customer experience & free up their teams to focus on more complex issues. It's a pretty cool way to apply the same principles of optimization & efficiency we use in our trading to the world of business. When you're trying to build a business and manage customer relationships, conversational AI platforms like Arsturn can help you build meaningful connections with your audience through personalized chatbots.
Conclusion
Whew, that was a lot, but I hope this deep dive into TradingView's chart settings was helpful. Honestly, the platform is so deep that we've really only scratched the surface, but these are the core settings & customizations that have made the biggest impact on my own trading.
The main takeaway here is to experiment. Play around with all the settings, find what works for your eyes & your trading style, & then save it all in templates & layouts. A well-organized & personalized workspace can make a HUGE difference in your ability to analyze the markets clearly & make good decisions.
Let me know what you think. Do you have any favorite chart settings or tips that I missed? Drop a comment below! Happy trading.