Why I Still Use TradingView: A Trader’s Honest Take on Charting, signals, and workflow

Okay, so check this out—I’ve tried a lot of charting platforms. Wow. Some were clunky. Some felt like they were built by committees who never traded. My instinct said: keep it simple. But then I got hooked on features that mattered in real time, not on whitepapers. Initially I thought a platform was just about pretty lines. Actually, wait—let me rephrase that: charts are half the story. The other half is workflow, community insight, and the speed at which you can act on an idea. This piece is my messy, practical breakdown of why I still lean on one app every day and how it shapes trade decisions.

Whoa! Short sentence. Seriously? I mean, there’s a lot here. I’ll be honest—I’m biased, but I trade for a living and screen time is my office. My first impressions usually come from a gut-level test: can I sketch an idea in 10 seconds? If not, pass. That simple rule weeds out 90% of the tools I’ve tested. On one hand aesthetics matter. On the other hand, configuration and scripting capability win when markets get spicy. Though actually, the truth sits somewhere in the middle—flexible visuals with a fast back-end give you optionality when you need it most.

What I use and why tradingview ends up on my desktop

Check this out—I’ve got a workflow that moves from idea to execution in three steps: observe, validate, automate. Observe: quick scan across timeframes. Validate: run a scripting check or cross-verify with market internals. Automate: set alerts and actionable triggers. For that loop, I use tradingview. It’s not that it’s perfect. It is, however, the one place where these steps happen without jumping between five different apps. Something felt off about platforms that forced me to export CSVs just to validate a simple breakout. Ugh.

Here’s the thing. The charting engine is responsive. The drawing tools are thoughtful. There are times when I want granular control—like a custom indicator that filters based on volume spikes and session overlaps—and the scripting environment gets me 80% of the way quickly. My instinct said, “if you can prototype and iterate, you’ll find edges faster.” And that’s true in practice. On the flip side, there are moments when latency matters. If you’re high-frequency or executing algos off-exchange, TradingView isn’t your execution layer. But for discretionary and semi-automated strategies, it’s a sweet spot.

Hmm… I remember a Monday where the market ripped and my alert chain worked. That felt good. On another note, the community scripts are both a blessing and a noise source. At times they reveal clever tweaks. Other times they add cognitive load. So I filter. I read source code. I copy snippets. I refactor. That part of the workflow is underrated—code readability inside community scripts tells you about an author’s mindset. If it’s spaghetti, I toss it. If it’s neat, I learn.

One of the things that bugs me about many platforms is their approach to defaults. Defaults should be conservative, usable out of the box. Many tools give you gaudy defaults that scream ‘look at me’ but don’t help decision making. TradingView’s defaults are okay. They get you started and you can tune without breaking your brain. I’m not 100% sure about every new UI tweak they roll out, but overall the product team listens—sometimes slowly, but the feedback loop is there. Oh, and by the way… their mobile app is actually usable. That’s rare.

Trade ideas: from scribble to signal

When I sketch a trade idea I usually do it on three layers: structure, trigger, management. Structure = context (trend, range, volatility). Trigger = confirmation (indicator cross, candle pattern, volume spike). Management = rules (stop, size, scaling, target). The platform matters because each step needs different tools. Structure needs multi-timeframe visuals. Trigger benefits from custom scripts and replay. Management is pure alerting and notification logic. Together, they form an execution blueprint that’s repeatable.

My cognitive process flips between fast and slow thinking here. Fast: “That pattern looks like an impulse—buy.” Slow: “Wait, what about session flow, delta, and cross-asset correlation?” I try to force the slow thought when stakes are meaningful. It’s a small discipline that saves money. Sometimes I get lazy though. Nothing’s perfect. But the ability to save templates, reuse alerts, and reference past setups makes me less likely to chase setups that worked once and are now tired.

Pro tip: use the replay feature. Really. Replay. It forces you to see setups without hindsight bias. Testing with replay sharpens pattern recognition and makes your entries less luck-based. Also, alerts with custom messages—like “Plan A: enter partial at X; Plan B: skip if spread > Y”—keep you honest. Put decisions in the alert text so when you get the ping at 6am, you don’t make fresh emotional rules.

Charting, scripting, and the social layer

People assume charting is solitary. Nope. The social layer matters. A thoughtful published idea can save you hours. A poorly explained or over-optimistic post can cause FOMO. I’ve learned to use community ideas as hypotheses, not trade signals. Initially I bought into crowd enthusiasm. Then I lost a small account and changed habits. On one hand community scripts accelerate learning. On the other, they create consensus risk. Balance is key.

There’s real value in reading other traders’ reasoning. If someone has a sound edge and explains their logic (not just “buy here”), you can adapt it. If they hide logic under flashy indicators, ignore. That simple curation rule cuts through noise. Honestly, my saved list of authors is like a curated playlist. I follow maybe 10 creators whose work I respect. And yeah, I sometimes reach out with a question. Most will reply. Human connection helps—even in trading, which is often framed as isolated.

Technical bits: plotting accuracy, backtesting assumptions, and timezone handling will bite you. Be aware. Timezone mismatches can make an intra-session setup look wrong on replay. Backtests are only as honest as your assumptions about fills and slippage. If you naively assume market fills at your limit, results will lie. I build conservatism into tests. That is, smaller win rate expectations and realistic slippage scenarios. It keeps my spreadsheets grounded.

Alright, here’s the wrap—though I won’t wrap like an essay. My closing feeling is different from my opening curiosity. I’m more pragmatic now. I like tools that respect my time and support iterative improvement. Trading is a craft. Use platforms that let you practice deliberately. Be skeptical of shiny shortcuts. Keep a few trusted templates. Test with replay. Trade with rules. Accept that some days you’ll be wrong and that’s part of the job. Something about that steady routine actually calms me. Hmm… maybe that’s the point.