How to set the right time zone on TradingView

Right-click the chart and choose Settings, open the Symbol tab and find Time zone. You can also click the clock in the bottom toolbar. For US stocks, choose Exchange, which shows New York time. The times you read about, such as the 9:30 a.m. ET open, then match your chart with no conversion.

Local time works too, as long as you stay consistent. Say you trade from Riyadh and mark the opening range as the first 15 minutes. On an exchange-time chart, that is the 9:30 to 9:45 candles. On a Riyadh-time chart, it is 4:30 to 4:45 p.m. until the US clocks change on November 1, 2026, then 5:30 to 5:45 p.m. Mix the two and you mark the wrong candles.

Regular or extended hours: which session should you use?

Under Settings, Symbol, Session, choose Regular trading hours or Extended trading hours. The session button in the bottom toolbar does the same in one click. For US stocks, extended hours add the pre-market from 4:00 a.m. ET and the after-hours session until 8:00 p.m. ET.

This choice changes your numbers. With extended hours on, the built-in VWAP starts its day in the pre-market, and the prior day's high and low can include thin after-hours trades. Say a stock's regular session topped out at $51.20, then it spiked to $51.80 at 6 p.m. on a few hundred shares. On an extended chart, yesterday's high now reads $51.80, a level few day traders are watching. Moving averages and ATR pick up those quiet bars too.

A simple rule: if you trade the regular session, chart the regular session. Switch extended hours on before the open to note the pre-market high and low, mark them with a horizontal line, then switch back.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

Two hand-drawn charts of the same day. On Regular trading hours, yesterday's high is $51.20. On Extended trading hours, four after-hours candles are added and one spikes to $51.80 at 18:00 on a tiny volume bar, a few hundred shares, so yesterday's high now reads $51.80; the old $51.20 level is still drawn faintly.

Chart type, candle colours and a clean canvas

Use standard candlesticks. Heikin Ashi candles look smoother because each one is an average, but their open and close are not real traded prices, so entries and stops read from them are off.

Colours live in Settings, Symbol: Body, Borders and Wick. Pick two colours you can tell apart at a glance; if red and green are hard for you to separate, blue and orange work well. In the Canvas tab, fade or hide the grid lines and keep a plain background. In the Status line tab, keep the OHLC values and indicator values visible so you can read exact prices without hovering.

When it looks right, open the Template menu at the bottom of the Settings window and save it. Any new chart can then take the same look in one click.

Price scale and the countdown to bar close

Right-click the price scale on the right to see its options. Keep Auto (fits data to screen) on. Use the regular, linear scale on intraday charts: a day's move is small, and linear shows the dollar distance to your stop and target as it is. Switch to Logarithmic, or press Alt+L, on multi-year charts where a stock went from $10 to $100, so equal percentage moves look equal. If an indicator line far from price squashes your candles, tick Scale price chart only.

Then go to Settings, Scales and lines, and tick Countdown to bar close. A timer under the price label shows how long the current candle has left. If your rules act on closed candles, this matters. Say a 5-minute candle sits at $50.25, just above support, with 1:40 to go. That is not a signal yet; it can still close below. The countdown does not show on Renko, Kagi, Point & Figure, Line Break or Range charts, which have no fixed bar time.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

Left, a hand-drawn Settings window on Scales and lines with Countdown to bar close ticked, and a note that the countdown does not show on Renko, Kagi, Point & Figure, Line Break or Range charts. Right, falling 5-minute candles reach a support zone; the live candle sits at $50.25 just above it, with a 1:40 countdown under its price tag and two dashed possible closes, one above support and one below, under the note: not a signal yet.

Watchlist, layouts and templates: what depends on your plan

Keep one short watchlist: SPY and QQQ for market direction, plus a handful of liquid stocks you know well. Ten to fifteen symbols is plenty. Press Alt+W to add the symbol on your chart. Save the whole chart with Ctrl+S, and save your indicators with their settings through the Indicator templates button in the top toolbar.

On paid plans, the Select layout button in the top toolbar splits the screen into several charts, and you can sync the symbol and crosshair across them, for example a 5-minute and a 1-hour chart of the same stock. On Basic, keep one chart and switch timeframes from the keyboard; the multi-timeframe analysis guide shows what to check on each frame. TradingView's pricing page lists these limits at the time of writing:

  • Indicators per chart: 2 on Basic, 5 on Essential, 10 on Plus. Drawings do not count toward this.
  • Charts in one split-screen layout: 1 on Basic, 2 on Essential, 4 on Plus.
  • Saved chart layouts: 1 on Basic, 5 on Essential, 10 on Plus.
  • Custom indicator templates: 1 on Basic, more on paid plans.
  • Watchlists: one list of up to 30 symbols on Basic, more on paid plans.
  • Bar Replay: daily and higher charts on every plan; intraday replay from Essential up.

TradingView keyboard shortcuts that matter for day trading

These few cover most of a trading day. On a Mac, use Option instead of Alt and Cmd instead of Ctrl.

  • Start typing a ticker anywhere on the chart to open symbol search.
  • Type a number and press Enter to change the timeframe: 5 for 5 minutes, 60 for one hour.
  • / opens the Indicators window.
  • Alt+H draws a horizontal line where your cursor is.
  • Alt+A opens the Create alert window.
  • Alt+R resets the chart view after you have scrolled or zoomed too far.
  • Alt+W adds the current symbol to your watchlist.
  • Ctrl+/ shows the full list of shortcuts.

Alerts, paper trading and the mobile app

Alerts let you stop staring at the screen. Press Alt+A, set the price and choose how to be told: an app notification or an email. At the time of writing, TradingView's pricing page lists three active price alerts on the free plan, with alerts on indicators and drawings starting from Essential. The TradingView alerts guide covers conditions and limits in detail.

Before you risk money on a new setup, practise it with paper trading, which is free on every plan. Open the Trading Panel at the bottom of the chart, choose Paper Trading and place virtual orders at live prices.

The mobile app uses the same account, so your watchlists, alerts and saved layouts follow you. Turn on autosave in the layout menu so drawings made on your computer show up on your phone. The free plan allows two chart connections at a time, so close charts you are not using.

How UpTickFlow fits a clean chart

UpTickFlow is our invite-only TradingView indicator, and it is built for a chart set up this way. In one indicator slot it builds support and resistance zones from swing pivots, the prior day's high and low, the opening range and daily and weekly levels; it draws session VWAP and its flow line; and it reads three higher timeframes automatically, shown as arrows in its three-row dashboard. On Basic, that leaves your second slot free, for volume for example.

It is designed for liquid US stocks, ETFs and index futures on 5-minute to 1-hour charts during the regular session. Signals use closed bars only and come with an entry, stop and target drawn on the chart. One alert carries the whole plan, though indicator alerts need a paid TradingView plan. It filters setups and gives you a plan; it does not predict price. It costs $19 every 30 days (pricing). If VWAP and your drawn levels already do the job, the free tools in our best TradingView indicators guide are a fine choice.